Dan Ballard's impending return to fitness will not see Luke O'Nien recast as a midfielder - with Tony Mowbray insisting he views O'Nien primarily as a defensive option. Summer signing Ballard made a fine start to the season in central defence but has been out of action since breaking a bone in his foot in August, although he took a significant step towards a comeback when he played for an hour in Sunderland U21s' win at Reading on Monday.
O'Nien had started the season playing in midfield but, in Ballard's absence, O'Nien has started every game - aside from one he missed through suspension - in defence, with almost all of those appearances coming at centre-back and most recently alongside the ever-present Danny Batth in a back four. Ever since O'Nien arrived at Sunderland in the summer of 2018, there has been a debate over his best position with the 28-year-old having joined as a defensive midfielder but going on to play at various times under different head coaches in central defence, both full-back roles, both wing-back roles, and as an attacking midfielder.
But Mowbray has used O'Nien mainly at centre-back, with the only exception coming when he was shifted to right-back for a three-game stint when Lynden Gooch was injured in late October and early November. And he now sees O'Nien as a defender who can be used in midfield if necessary, rather than a midfielder capable of playing in defence.
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"I don't see him getting pushed into midfield [when Ballard returns], no," said Mowbray. "He looks to me like a mobile, aggressive, defender - and you need some mobility in this league around your central defence.
"But it's dangerous for me to sit here and try to predict what the team will look like somewhere down the line. It naturally evolves, really.
"At this moment, if I think the defensive unit is doing alright - and I think Luke O'Nien is doing alright and I think Danny Batth is doing alright - there won't be any need to change it, necessarily. I don't know what's down the line.
"I suppose that if we win every game from now until the end of the season and they keep clean sheets every game, you don't change anything - but it's pretty unlikely that is going to happen."
Once Ballard is fit, Mowbray will have plenty of options in central defence with Batth, O'Nien, Bailey Wright, and Aji Alese also competing for starting spots, while Dennis Cirkin has also been used at the heart of defence on occasion. Rather than setting a definite pecking order, Mowbray prefers to mix and match his defenders depending on what he sees as the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition.
Mowbray said: "Dan Ballard, Luke O'Nien, Danny Batth, Bailey Wright - it doesn't really matter. They're all in a competition within a competition. Dan has to await his opportunity and bide his time and get fit and train hard every day and show me his real competitive edge.
"There might be an argument to play Dan Ballard because he is really fast and strong and powerful, and he's really good in the air - I'm not sure what he's like with the ball, he's only had a couple of training sessions with us - but if he is good with the ball as well then all of a sudden you've got a footballer who is ticking more of the boxes and maybe is going to force his way into the team. It'll depend what we need.
"Are we playing a very direct team, when we'll probably pick Danny Batth to play alongside Dan Ballard, and Luke O'Nien with all his qualities might have to sit it out. Or they have really fast, darty little strikers, and maybe Danny Batth will sit out that day and Luke will play.
"It doesn't mean one is better than the other, it means they have different attributes. The manager's job is to pick a team to win the game, not to appease the players.
"Sometimes you get stuck thinking 'well, we kept a clean sheet, let's keep the same back four,' but the logic in the back of your head is ticking away saying 'he's lightning fast up front, so you really should be changing that winning team and put your fastest players in to deal with that mobility'."
Mowbray, a centre-back himself during his playing days, smiled: "If your recruitment department asked you to put a Photofit together of what kind of centre-half you were looking for, you'd say you want him to be 6ft 5in, fast as lightning, I'd like him to dribble out like [West German legend Franz] Beckenbauer if he can, and pass it like Ronald Koeman, I like him to sprint like the fastest player in the world, and get goals from set-pieces! You have to make compromises, though, because that player isn't coming to Sunderland, he's already playing for Barcelona or Real Madrid."
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