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Sunderland Moved a little closer, Premier League Eliezer Majanda took the lead in the first half as his side drew 1-1 with Bournemouth on Friday night.
The Black Cats are currently 12th in the league, 12 points above the relegation zone with 10 games remaining, so they can almost say they will be playing in the top flight again next season.
Regis Lebris As a result, Sunderland are expected to retain the Premier League and be relegated next season for the first time since avoiding relegation in the 2015/16 season.
The French manager deserves credit for getting his side to this point after promotion from the Championship last season, but so does the job of recruiting his team.
Sunderland have been busy throughout the summer transfer window since promotion and the work they have put in over the past few months has paid off in a big way.
How Sunderland’s transfer strategy keeps them ahead of the curve
Rather than signing a few top Championship players in the hope they too will advance, as some teams do when promoting, the Black Cats are focusing on experience and fitness.
Sunderland went beyond their club-record signings in the summer by signing six players for £13.6m in Didier Ndong, including Habib Diarra, who signed for a club-record £27m.
The introduction of Noddy Mukele, who has played for Paris Saint-Germain and Bayer Leverkusen, and Granit Xhaka, who has played for Leverkusen and Arsenal, provide a strong backbone for the team.
Players such as Omar Alderet, Brian Brombie, Noah Sadiqi and Diarra don’t have the same level of experience as Mukiele and Xhaka, but they provide superior physicality on the pitch.
Sunderland are fourth in the Premier League in aerial duels won per game (18.6) and tenth in set-piece goals conceded (9), a sign that their recruitment has made them a physical side.
That physicality appears to be what’s keeping them in the league, as they have the third-fewest goals scored (29) and the sixth-fewest goals conceded (34).
However, when Sunderland avoided relegation from the Premier League last time, they did so through goals from Jermaine Defoe and Fabio Borini.
Sunderland’s best Premier League duo since Defoe and Borini
In the 2015/16 season, the Black Cats ranked 17th, scoring 48 goals in 38 games while conceding a whopping 62 goals. Defoe (15 goals) and Borini (5 goals) are the club’s two top scorers, scoring a total of 21 goals, accounting for almost half of the team’s goals.
Sunderland will now avoid relegation by defending solidly rather than relying on two exciting attackers to score freely, with the defensive pairing of Dan Ballard and Alderet playing a key role in this.
Ballard, signed from Arsenal for £2m in 2022, is one of a handful of players to have been promoted from the Championship to a regular in the Premier League, while Aldrete, signed from Getafe for £10m, has moved straight into the backline.
Six of the team’s eight clean sheets have been kept in the 20 games they have played together, and only two have been kept in the eight games they have not played together.
With their physicality and defensive awareness, the central defensive pairing has played a key role in Sunderland developing one of the best defensive records in the Premier League, whether in the air or from set-pieces.
|
25/26PL |
Ballard |
Alderet |
|---|---|---|
|
Number of appearances |
twenty four |
twenty four |
|
gap between games |
6.8 |
6.6 |
|
Steals per game |
1.2 |
1.0 |
|
Number of duels won per match |
6.3 |
4.3 |
|
Ground duel success rate |
66% |
52% |
|
Aerial duel success rate |
59% |
57% |
Both Ballard and Aldrete won the majority of their defensive duels on the ground and in the air, meaning they rarely allowed opposing players to get the better of them physically.
Their clearances per game rank sixth (Ballard) and seventh (Aldrete) among all players in the Premier League this season, trailing only the likes of Virgil van Dijk and Maxence Lacroix.
Sunderland’s defense will keep the team in the league and Le Bris has the duo to thank for their performances, which is why they look to be the club’s best Premier League pairing since Defoe and Borini.
Ballard and Aldrete may not be as exciting as the former Black Cats attackers as they are defenders rather than prolific goalscorers, but they are just as important to the team’s expected survival as these two forwards were a decade ago.
