What Sunderland defender hopes Leeds and West Brom will do when they visit the Stadium of Light

Trai Hume hopes Sunderland can go toe to toe with West Brom and Leeds in their next two Championship fixtures at the Stadium of Light.

The Black Cats have taken just one point from their last three matches but did stop a run of defeats by drawing 1-1 at Millwall last time out. That result came after a frustrating 2-1 home defeat against Huddersfield, when the visitors recorded just 24 per cent possession.

When asked if it could suit Sunderland playing against teams nearer the top of the league who may look to play on the front foot more, Hume replied: “Especially at home, whenever teams come to us they usually sit in, play a deep block, try and restrict us and try to hit us on the counter. 

“We don’t know what they’ll do but hopefully coming up against West Brom and Leeds they will come and have a go and we’ll see if we can go toe to toe with them and see who wins.

“West Brom are in good form and only conceded a last-minute goal against Leicester. They were in good form leading into that game.

“Leeds are a good side, a good counter attacking side and score a lot of goals. When they come to us hopefully they’ll come out and have a go at us and not sit in that low block like a lot of teams have done recently when it’s been tough. They’ll be good games.”

While starting games at full-back, Hume has regularly taken up midfield positions when Sunderland are in possession and looking to break teams down this season.

“It just depends on what team you play,” the defender explained when asked about his role after the Millwall match. “I didn’t do it as much today. I did it at times but we go over clips and stuff like that for the team we are coming up against.

“You can see what way we have to break them down and sometimes it works and sometimes it won’t. Today I wasn’t told to do it that much so we just have to see who we are playing against.”