I've watched Tommy Watson all season long for Sunderland U21s - this is where he should play against Millwall

Knowing it is going to happen is one thing; stopping it from happening is quite another. How many of Jack Clarke’s goals in a Sunderland shirt were scored in that same cookie cutter, carbon copy fashion? You know the one I mean; the languorous dally up to the full-back, the sudden dart inside like a moth making for the glow of a fluorescent tube light, the curling effort nestling inevitably in that yawning, welcoming far corner.

Truthfully, the answer feels like “too many to count”. It was a hallmark of his presence out on the left flank, an ace in the hole when the Black Cats found themselves traipsing through the doldrums last season. Once Clarke upped sticks and left for Ipswich Town this summer, some supporters must have wondered if they would ever see screamers of that ilk again. Within a matter of days, Romaine Mundle quelled any such fears.

But waiting in the wings - quite literally - behind Clarke’s successor, there is another capable of uncanny mimicry. Tommy Watson, at this stage, is no grand secret. Already this season, he has made a quintet of Championship appearances, including a full first team debut in the recent 0-0 stalemate against Preston North End. Beyond that, he has been the subject of material interest from Premier League gold panners Brighton and Hove Albion, while at U21 level he currently sits atop a running tally of five goals and four assists... amassed in just five outings.

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Increasingly, it feels as if he has properly graduated from “academy starlet” to “genuine senior squad member”, and yet, for the uninitiated few who have not seen him at full gallop down at the Eppleton Colliery Welfare Ground, it would be permissible to wonder what all the fuss is about. Partially, this is because he has been confined to fleeting cameos for the most part by Regis Le Bris - the scraps and crumbs from Mundle’s overflowing banquet table, if you like - and partially, it is because when he was afforded a rare start by the Frenchman, he was played out of position.

Against Preston, Watson was posted out on the right. Fine, fair enough. He is ostensibly right-footed, and his burgeoning skill set should, theoretically speaking, be highly transferable. But to deprive him of his preferred left-sided berth is to rob him of his greatest party trick. Like Clarke before him and Mundle currently, the teenager is at his most raucous when he at least has the option of cutting inside his man onto his favoured peg. It is how he scores an overwhelming amount of his goals for the U21s, and you suspect it is how he will score an overwhelming amount of his goals at senior level too, when that particular levee eventually breaks.

And all of this is relevant right now because Sunderland are rapidly approaching a thorny clash with Millwall for which they look decidedly threadbare. In attack alone, they are set to be without the suspended Patrick Roberts and very probably the aforementioned Mundle, who was withdrawn injured against Coventry City and has subsequently jetted off for a sun-drenched mini-break in a manner that doesn’t exactly scream, “Put me in, Reg!”. To complicate matters further, a one-match ban for moustachioed stalwart Trai Hume - and a lack of obvious cover at right-back - could force the Black Cats into a hitherto unprecedented change of shape under Le Bris. There are whispers of a three at the back, a two at the point of attack - although if we’re being wholly honest, at this exact moment in time, it is all just supposition.

And caught up in the tumult of it all is Watson. Will he finally be given a start - and chance to stake a meaningful claim - on his cherished left wing? Will he once again be thrown in as a direct replacement for Roberts on the opposite side, as he was against Preston? Will he, in some fell swoop of cerebral tinkering, be asked to operate as a right wing-back to accommodate for Hume’s absence? Right now, any and all are possible.

But despite the array of conundrums currently flapping around Le Bris’ head like cartoon birds, the simple fact of the matter is that if Sunderland want to get the best out of Watson, then they really do need to play him on the left. Whether that is feasible against Millwall, only time will tell, but certainly in the long term, it makes the most sense.