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The Black Cats thrashed South Shields at the 1st Cloud Arena with plenty of first-team interest and food for thought for new head coach Régis Le Bris to mull over.
Sunderland’s new head coach took charge of his first game since his summer arrival from French club Lorient with the Black Cats 5-0 up by half-time with a poor South Shields side providing little resistance. The scores stayed the same in the second half despite multiple changes for both sides.
Here, we take a look at how James Copley rated Sunderland’s players against South Shields:
5. Joe Anderson
Started at left-back and looked solid enough against lower-league opposition. It will be interesting to see how his summer develops. The former Everton man managed to venture forward once or twice as well. A decent showing. 7 Photo: Jeremy Ng
6. Dan Neil
Sunderland’s captain on the day. Neil played alongside Rigg in the first half with the two complimenting each other well. Hardly gave the ball away and looked a cut above South Shields’ midfielders as you would expect. Controlled the game well. Very impressive showing. 8 Photo: Frank Reid
7. Chris Rigg
Looks to have grown a bit physically over the summer. It was exciting to see him play in midfield with Neil and he fared well. Sunderland’s third. Scored Sunderland’s fourth with an easy finish. Came off around the 60-minute mark for Kelly. Great showing from the 17-year-old. Full of running as usual and his attitude to the game was superb. 9 Photo: Frank Reid
8. Patrick Roberts
Scored the opener and assisted Hume for Sunderland’s second. Looked very lively during the opening minutes of the game and caused South Shields lots of problems during the second half too. Sunderland will be hoping to get the winger back to his form of two seasons ago after a disappointing 2023-24 campaign. 9 Photo: Frank Reid