Sunderland: Thompson could be Diaz 2.0

Sunderland supervisor Tony Mowbray has proven a willingness to utilise the younger expertise obtainable to him on the Stadium of Mild this season.

The previous Blackburn Rovers head coach named academy teenager Zac Johnson on the bench for the 2-1 win over Birmingham away from dwelling within the Championship final Friday and has handed minutes to the likes of Edouard Michut and Jewison Bennette.

He has additionally continued to pick Anthony Patterson and Daniel Neil, who’re each merchandise of the Academy of Mild, as regulars within the second division this time period.

Mowbray is exhibiting that there’s a pathway for the academy gamers to make the breakthrough into the first-team within the coming weeks, months, and years and this could encourage the present crop of children to push on and emulate the success Patterson and Neil have had.

The English coach has confirmed that he can get the most effective out of younger gamers and assist them to fulfil their potential. One nice instance of his work on the coaching pitch is the job he did with Ben Brereton Diaz at Blackburn.

He signed the attacker from Nottingham Forest in 2018 and the promising expertise struggled to search out his toes in his first two years as he scored twice in 40 Championship appearances.

Mowbray refused to ditch the winger and caught by Diaz despite his poor type in entrance of objective and was rewarded for his religion with a whopping 29 targets and eight assists within the 2020/21 and 2021/22 league campaigns mixed from the Chile worldwide.

Ought to Sunderland give Max Thompson an opportunity?

The Rovers attacker can play on both flank or via the center and the Black Cats boss may now unearth his subsequent model of the prolific scorer in academy teenager Max Thomspon, who may play wherever throughout the frontline.

In Premier League 2 this season, the 20-year-old dynamo has scored five occasions and assisted one in seven appearances for Sunderland’s U21 facet after becoming a member of from Burnley in the summertime.

This comes after he had plundered 17 targets and four assists in 41 appearances within the competitors for the Clarets, who he additionally made his Premier League debut for.

The marksman, who journalist Josh Bunting dubbed “clinical” and a “real natural” goalscorer, has proven loads of promise as a winger and as a striker at youth degree and should have the potential to make the step as much as first-team degree.

He may now comply with in Diaz’s footsteps as a proficient younger, goalscoring, ahead who develops into a daily scorer within the Championship below Mowbray’s administration. Nonetheless, it’s all the way down to Thompson to fulfil his promise and adapt to enjoying at senior degree if and when the prospect comes.