Sunderland star who gave Plymouth ‘torrid time’ included in Championship Team of the Week
Sunderland winger Romaine Mundle has been named in the Championship’s official Team of the Week following the Black Cats’ agonising 3-2 defeat at the hands of Plymouth Argyle on Saturday afternoon.
Regis Le Bris’ side took a first half lead against the Pilgrims, but fell behind after losing control of the contest following the interval at Home Park. Mundle then gave the travelling support hope when he looked to have salvaged a point with an equaliser in the 86th minute, but Sunderland were unable to hang on, conceding deep into stoppage time to curtail a perfect start to their league campaign.
Nevertheless, despite the disappointment of losing on the south coast, Mundle still did enough to play his way into the second tier’s best XI of the weekend, as decided by stats gurus Whoscored
the online database said: “Romaine Mundle scored for the third league game running as Sunderland ultimately fell to a 3-2 loss at Plymouth on Saturday. The young winger scored with one of three shots at Home Park, and he gave the Pilgrims backline a torrid time as he completed six dribbles to help land a WhoScored.com rating of 8.54.”
Indeed, the only player who eclipsed Mundle’s rating of 8.54 this weekend was West Brom’s Alex Mowatt, with the midfielder earning a perfect 10 for his showing against Portsmouth – during which he scored a brace.
As mentioned by Whoscored, Mundle is now on a goal-scoring run of three successive matches, but his manager is not particularly shocked by the manner in which he has introduced himself to the first team following Jack Clarke’s departure over the summer. Speaking after Mundle’s first strike, against Burnley last month, Le Bris said: “I’m not really surprised
“We saw his qualities during the friendly games and he worked during training this week, so I’m not really surprised by his ability to play at this level. Now, the key point for him and for us as a team is the consistency – the ability to repeat, repeat, repeat. This is the difference between a good team and a good player, and a top team and a top player.
“This is our philosophy. The young players have the opportunity to play, to develop and to help the team to win. If they get the opportunity to take the next step, that is good and it’s the next one. So Romaine had this opportunity, he needs time to develop but he is very talented and for sure he is going to help us.”
Sunderland lost for the first time in the league this season last weekend against Wayne Rooney’s Plymouth Argyle at Home Park.
However, several transfer stories have emerged in recent days which will interest Sunderland fans ahead of the January transfer window with business expected under sporting director Kristjaan Speakman.