Tony Mowbray sheds light on Edouard Michut absence from Sunderland squad

Why was Edouard Michut missing from the Sunderland teamsheet in the win at QPR?

Edouard Michut was not left out of the Sunderland squad that beat QPR because of injury. Tony Mowbray has confirmed.

Michut along with Amad Diallo and Dan Neil were taken out of the side for the win at Loftus Road, although the latter two still featured from the bench.

The absence of the Frenchman wasn’t due to an injury though, with Mowbray confirming it was just about managing the player’s fitness levels.

"We just left him at home to give him a rest," Mowbray said.

"He's coming into a league he's never played in, he's never played three games in a week in his life I don't think.

"I think he's played four games in ten games now. Rather than him doing all the travelling, we just told him to stay, relax, and get ready for Saturday."

QPR have now won just one of their last 17 matches and that run includes an FA Cup defeat to League One Fleetwood Town.

That, according to Mowbray, gave Sunderland to ‘prey’ upon, and they certainly did that.

"We talked about coming here and winning here tonight, probably because of the lack of confidence in a team that’s won one in ten or whatever it is,” Mowbray said.

“Sometimes, you have to prey on that, yet they didn’t feel like there was a shortage of confidence from them when they got it right.

“We could prey off the missed pass, nick it and break and threaten their goal, and towards the end we did that better when we made a few changes. And we were resilient at the back. We blocked things."

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