Tony Mowbray has tough choices ahead as Sunderland's injury situation continues to clear and with Ross Stewart ready to rejoin the Black Cats' Championship campaign. Sunderland went into the World Cup break battling a lengthy injury list, with Stewart, Lynden Gooch, Dan Ballard, Dennis Cirkin, Aji Alese, and Edouard Michut, all on the sidelines.
Gooch, Alese, and Cirkin returned for the 3-0 win against Millwall last weekend, and Stewart is expected to be back in contention for Monday's home game against West Bromwich Albion, with Ballard and Michut not far behind. And for Mowbray that means he will face differrent dilemmas, with a lack of options giving way to a surfeit of selection decisions.
Mowbray is a big believer in the value of football as a squad game but he knows that part of the challenge is to ensure that players not included in the starting XI realise that they still have a part to play. It is an issue Mowbray brought up recently when he revealed he has spoken to Patrick Roberts, who has found himself on the bench of late as on-loan Manchester United man Amad has taken on a starring role with four goals and an assist in his last six games.
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"I try to sell a squad game to them, but it is difficult with individuals," said Mowbray. "Is it highlighted at the moment? I'm jumping contexts, but you look at Portugal with their coach [Fernando Santos] who has found a winning way without one of the greatest players of all time [Ronaldo].
"Is he [Santos] going to carry on that way? Because the team has to come first when you are trying to win the World Cup. Here at Sunderland, we're trying to win football matches and I think as long as there's a logic and as long as players understand that, there's no problem.
"I haven't had a problem with Patrick. It's not as though he is sulking and moping around the building. He understands that Amad is scoring goals, he's on fire, and the two of them generally play in the same area on the pitch.
"But I like the idea of a squad because a game is 90 minutes, and you can win the game in the last 20 minutes. England have shown that, because the substitutes have generally finished the game off for them.
"There's no reason that that can't happen at this club. As I keep saying to the group, if you are not selected it's not because I've fallen out of love with you, or because you're not working hard enough, or because I think you're terrible, it's because this is the team we want to start against these opponents but it's not to say that you won't come on and finish the game off for us by scoring two goals.
"But one player's selection does impact another's omission sometimes."
With Stewart on the verge of a return from the thigh injury that has kept him out since the end of August, Mowbray will soon have to decide whether to continue playing with one centre-forward and therefore decide whether to start Stewart or Ellis Simms, or play them together and, if the latter, what system would get the best out of them. But whatever formation he chooses, and that may vary depending on the opposition and the circumstances, Mowbray wants his team to keep the same core identity.
He said: "If we decide to play two up front, will we play 4-4-2 or a back five with three in midfield? Where does that leave some of the technical players who have been playing in those wide areas - Jack Clarke, Alex Pritchard, Elliot Embleton, Patrick Roberts?
"Do they get into a team with two centre-forwards? These are the decisions we have to make.
"We'll look at the opposition and see where there strengths and weaknesses are. My job is to try and win football matches, and to develop young players of course, and to try to give the team an identity of how we want to play.
"Whether we play three at the back, four at the back, attacking with five strikers or six strikers, I'd like the identity to be the same and for the fans to enjoy the football. The players will be given the tactics of why we need an extra man today or why we are going to play with width or why we are going to play really narrow in midfield.
"As long as the shape doesn't impact the fact that we need to play forward passes and get men in the box, those sort of things need to remain regardless of the formation."
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