O’Nien has been Sunderland’s real hero

Sunderland have loved and endured a rollercoaster begin to the 2022/23 marketing campaign as they head into the break for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

The Black Cats ended their four-year spell in League One as they gained promotion through the play-offs, beating Wycombe 2-0 within the remaining, final season.

Alex Neil led them to victory at Wembley however didn’t final lengthy within the Championship as he determined to ditch the Stadium of Mild to join rivals Stoke Metropolis on the finish of August.

Kristjaan Speakman reacted to that by bringing within the skilled Tony Mowbray and the previous Blackburn Rovers boss has been a gentle pair of palms to this point.

Sunderland are fifteenth within the table, however can go tenth by successful their sport in hand, after 19 matches and have won as many video games (seven) as they’ve misplaced.

Prolific marksman Ross Stewart stole all the headlines within the early a part of the marketing campaign as he plundered 5 objectives and three assists from seven appearances within the division, averaging a SofaScore rating of 7.66.

The Scotland worldwide took the Championship by storm however has not performed a aggressive sport for the membership since thirty first of August as a result of an injury that he’s set to return from after the break.

Stewart was the star man of the primary seven matches however different gamers have been placing in constantly spectacular performances all through your complete marketing campaign to this point and the actual hero for Mowbray has been utility man Luke O’Nien.

Have you ever been impressed by O’Nien this season?

The previous Wycombe machine has been a standout for Sunderland for a number of causes; together with his versatility, consistency, and high quality.

He has performed in 18 of the membership’s 20 Championship matches and began 16 occasions, which reveals that he was an everyday within the facet for each Neil and Mowbray through the first part of the season.

In that point, O’Nien has played at centre-back, right-back, and holding midfield, one thing that reveals the supervisor trusts him to play in a mess of roles, with Sunderland switching between a again 5 and 4.

The £5k-per-week gem, who was dubbed “awkward” to get previous and a “revelation” by former boss Jack Ross, has additionally put in high quality performances on the pitch.

O’Nien has averaged a SofaScore ranking of 6.93 within the Championship while making 3.5 tackles and interceptions per sport and successful 53% of his duels.

These statistics present that he has been a dependable possibility on the again as he has constantly put in strong shows and gained the ball again for his facet regularly, while holding his personal in bodily battles with the opposition.

Due to this fact, he has been the actual hero of the primary a part of the season for the Black Cats as a result of his influence on the pitch, his consistency, and his versatility for Mowbray.