Five Sunderland players who could get new lease of life under Michael Beale

Michael Beale will inevitably bring some change at Sunderland. That may be bad news for some players - but good for others.

Michael Graham | Dec 22, 2023

Five Sunderland players who could get new lease of life under Michael Beale /

Sunderland embark on another new era on Saturday, with Michael Beale becoming the latest head coach to bring his ideas to Wearside.

That certainly won’t mean sweeping changes. In the past it has, but Sunderland are all about continuity nowadays. While previous Sunderland owners have got a manager then allowed him to buy players who will suit his football, they now set their own playing identity from the top, but players who can produce it, and hire coaches who fit the players.

"We're certainly putting pressure on to play a certain style because we have an identity at Sunderland and everybody needs to be aligned with that,” Kristjaan Speakman admitted when unveiling Beale to the press.

However, new head coaches always bring a degree of change regardless. That may not be good news for some players, but it could be very good news for others – and here are five of them.

Jenson Seelt

Let’s start off with a topic that is always the subject of intense debate among the Sunderland supporters – the position of Luke O’Nien.

O’Nien has the ‘not a natural centre back’ stigma to overcome with a great number of Sunderland fans, but the stats may surprise many. He has played more times in the centre of defence for the Black Cats than he has any other position. If add in full-back starts, O’Nien has play well over half his games for Sunderland in defence.

However, even if you reject the ‘not a natural centre back’ argument, you still have to acknowledge that playing O’Nien in that position comes with accepting certain weaknesses. He’s not the best in the air and he is always very grabby at set pieces which comes with high risk. There are big positives as well, but whether they make the negatives worth carrying is a legitimate debate.

Tony Mowbray clearly rated O’Nien at centre-back very highly and his position in the team there felt very cemented. Michael Beale may have other ideas there, though, and if he does then Jenson Seelt will be the obvious man to benefit, especially after such a fine performance against Leeds.

Nazariy Rusyn

While a striker will be targeted in January, at some point Sunderland are going to have to start trusting the ones they have already signed.

Hemir looks the most raw but also has time on his hands. In time, the fact Beale speaks Portuguese may prove very helpful in the development of Hemir, but for now he looks the furthest from the first team.

Mason Burstow is on loan and if he isn’t doing it, which he hasn’t been, it’s tough to justify giving him opportunities over players that the club have invested in. Eliezer Mayenda has shown a lot of potential, but he also looks more like an impact player right now.

Rusyn is the most experienced and there is no reason why he can’t make an impact. He has looked the best by far in the opportunities he has had as well.

All four started for the under-21s in the defeat to Arsenal this week in what felt like an audition in front of Beale. Rusyn made the best impression and scored, so if anyone is getting a chance it looks most likely to be him.

Jewison Bennette

It feels like it hasn’t really worked out for Jewison Bennette at Sunderland and it’s difficult to put your finger on why.

He hasn’t had a huge amount of opportunity. In fact, he still hasn’t started a single Championship game for Sunderland and yet he still has a couple of goals and assists to his name.

Part of his problem is that Jack Clarke is ahead of him, but there is no reason why he can’t play from the right, and considering the number of opportunities Abdoullah Ba has bad by comparison it seems odd that Bennette has not featured more.

There seemed to be a bit of an issue between Bennette and Mowbray, and reports have emerged that the Costa Rican feels ‘disrespected’ at Sunderland.

There is every chance he could get a loan in January, but he could get a new lease of life under Beale too. Beale, after all, is a Spanish speaker, so he may be able to manage Bennette more effectively.

Timothee Pembele

We don’t really know what Michael Beale will do tactically, but we know that he has always liked his full-backs to be high and overlapping before.

📸: #PembeleWatch 🇫🇷 #SAFC pic.twitter.com/3ywjuQlKoM
— RJX.MEDIA 📸 (@RJXMEDIA) December 19, 2023

That was something we rarely really saw under Tony Mowbray. He generally preferred to rotate Trai Hume from right back into central midfield and then gave his midfielders the freedom to create overloads – a freedom they probably didn’t use often enough.

If Beale is going to release the Sunderland full-backs, though, Timothee Pembele could prove to be a huge asset.

He wasn’t available for Mowbray, but he finally got some minutes against Arsenal for the under-21s and looked exactly the kind of quick, powerful, dynamic attacking full-back who could give this Sunderland squad a much-needed extra dimension in the final third.

Trai Hume

If Beale is ultimately going to go with attacking overlapping full-backs, you’d think Pembele, Niall Huggins and Dennis Cirkin would likely be his go-to players for those roles.

That would create a question about what to do with Trai Hume, because surely he has to play somewhere?

What Beale has spoken about in the past in terms of tactics is that when you do ask your full-backs to push high, he likes to have a defensive central midfield player who can drop back and make a back three.

Luke O’Nien could certainly do that job if required, but Hume may be the one ideally suited to it. His ferocious tackling would have massive value in central midfield and he is incredibly assured on the ball.

Hume has often looked a little like a frustrated midfielder, and he also played the bulk of his youth football in central midfield and rotated into that position every week under Mowbray, so it could be a really nice fit from a tactical point of view.

It would also be a positional switch he'd likely welcome.

Jenson Seelt

Nazariy Rusyn

Jewison Bennette

Timothee Pembele

Trai Hume

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