Graeme Murty reveals Sunderland U21s are 'fuming' after recent European development and talks season aims

Sunderland under-21s lead coach Graeme Murty joked his young team were “fuming” after narrowly missing out on the next round of the Premier League International Cup

The Black Cats played games against Athletic Bilbao, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Lyon and Benfica in Group B of the competition this season after qualifying following a strong finish to last campaign’s Premier League 2, when Murty’s men reached the play-off final against Tottenham.

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After winning their last PL International Cup game against Benfica, Sunderland faced a nervous wait for the result of the Athletic vs Blackburn Rovers clash. However, the Spanish club won the game with a 92nd-minute deciding goal, which meant Murty’s youngsters didn’t qualify for the next round.

“How close was that, by the way? Gosh! The lads are fuming. But this is a really good group and I love working with them,” Murty said when asked about the Premier League International Cup after Sunderland’s most recent league game against Wolves, which the Black Cats won 5-0 at the Academy of Light on Friday afternoon - a top 12 finish will be enough for Murty’s team to qualify for Europe again.

Murty added: “Yes, there are nice rewards at the end of this, but I keep on saying that it's about seeing the progression of the players. So, we see the team progressing. You saw Rhys (Walsh) showing better things. You see Luke Bell becoming more assured. You see Finn Geragisuan actually stepping up to this level and doing well.

“Development in our younger players is the key. The things that they get when they continue to show in performance levels are that they get the reward at the end. They get the league placement. They get the nice trips and the nice games. What we get to see is their longitudinal development of a group of players that was kind of new at the start of the season.

“I think you're seeing a good progression from the group. I think you're seeing much more cohesion and a lot of individual growth within the group, which is my job. We'll look at the league position at the end, but for the moment, we're stuck in the meat and bones of our business of making players recognise what their true potential is and go after it.”

Graeme Murty pleased Sunderland U21s mentality vs Wolves

Sunderland defeated Wolves 5-0 in the Premier League 2 at the Academy of Light on Friday afternoon. Goals came from Timur Tutierov, Ahmed Abdullahi, Rhys Walsh, Jaydon Jones and Finn Geragusian as the Black Cats endured a tricky opening first 20 minutes before eventually exerting their dominance over their opponents. The game was Sunderland’s second against Wolves in four days with Murty’s side drawing 2-2 with the Wanderers away from home in the Premier League 2 Cup last week.

“We thought that in our first game down there that we'd played particularly well,” Murty added after the game. “I thought we played better than we did today, but we let ourselves down in the nature of the goals that we conceded. So, it was a real emphasis from the back group to make sure that we were clinical in both boxes, not just going forward.

“So, for us to put the bodies on the line, to make good blocks. Luke Bell made two particularly good ones in the first half, but everyone, I thought, along the back line and the midfield group did what was required today to make sure that they got a clean sheet and that's always pleasing. So, when we possess an attacking threat like we do and we want to dominate the ball, it's really important that we do the opposite part of it really well and I thought they did that today.”

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