Tony Mowbray explains why Amad Diallo was dropped to the Sunderland bench at QPR

What was the reason behind Tony Mowbray taking Amad Diallo out of his Sunderland side this week?

Tony Mowbray says Amad Diallo was dropped to the Sunderland bench at QPR because he needed to ‘re-energise mentally.’

The on-loan Man Utd forward has been a stand-out performer for Sunderland this season, but he was rested by the Sunderland boss at Loftus Road alongside Dan Neil and Edouard Michut.

Mowbray though says there was no drama behind it, and he was simply concerned about Amad suffering from a mental burn-out.

"[Resting Amad] was important," Mowbray said. "He is not a robot. He needs to re-energise mentally as well as physically.

"It looks to me as though he is a pretty robust footballer - he's played just about every minute up until the last week or so, when we brought him off [against Reading] and left him out [against QPR].

“Hopefully this period is of benefit to him moving forward, emotionally and psychologically to hit the reset button and show everybody just how talented he is and almost to say to the coach that it's difficult to leave him out."

Amad still came off the bench at Loftus Road and he did so when the game was getting stretched. That meant he had a lot of space to work in, and Sunderland noticeably improved after his introduction as a result.

He should have got himself a goal too when sent clean through by Pierre Ekwah, but Mowbray says he has no concerns at all about the Ivorian’s form.

"I did think the team had a spurt when he came on, to be honest,” Mowbray said. “He just has the ability to pick the right pass and release some pressure and if the other team is pressing, he can eliminate that press with one pass or one bit of skill and suddenly we are breaking away at their back line.

"It felt as if in that last 15 minutes, on another day, we could have scored another three goals just because he is picking the right pass more often than not, either sending Patrick [Roberts] away or playing a one-two with Patrick or Trai [Hume], and he was in one-one-one with the goalkeeper himself once. The bigger picture is that hopefully he will benefit from the rest he's had.

"I'm not saying he needs to rediscover his form because he had never lost form, but he maybe wasn't hitting the same heights as when he was scoring every game for us but he was still picking the right passes.

“I want him to be hungry and play with that hunger that makes him the best player on the pitch every time he goes out there."

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