The low-key Sunderland return that could have major consequences for the long season ahead

Dan Neil picked up the ball on the turn and cut open the Harrogate defence with a pass of immaculate weight.

Through on goal, Will Grigg made no mistake.

There has been some disappointment that Neil has not featured more this season, perhaps reflective of the sense that this kind of poise and composure in the final third remains something still missing from Sunderland's game. At the very least, something that is not produced with the regularity required.

It's also a skill that we don't see a great deal of in League One, that brief moment of pause and calm before the incision. In the wider game in general, craft is being largely sidelined in favour of physicality, a trend most acute in the lower leagues.

Perspective, of course, is essential. Neil is just 18, with time firmly on his side.

Sunderland have created chances at a decent rate this season; the problem largely being that they haven't taken them.

Seven games and fourteen points reflects, as Parkinson himself put it, a 'decent' start when the fixture list was widely considered to be a challenging one.

Yet there is no doubt that this will be a long and punishing season.

Variety and depth will be essential, and Sunderland will need to adapt as they go along. They have the physical capacity to overwhelm teams with their pressing, but they also need to be able to adjust against opponents who can weather that storm.

They will need that ability, above all else, to prise open deep-lying and stubborn defences.

One of the most interesting aspects of that pre-season surge from Neil was that it brought to mind almost exactly what had happened a year previous, when Jack Ross had first moved towards a 3-4-3 system.

Sunderland looked solid in Portugal but not hugely threatening.

Elliot Embleton changed that, standing out with his capacity to hurt the oppositin from deep. Though it didn't instantly yield goals, what was most striking was the way that the likes of Duncan Watmore were suddenly emerging as a threat on the shoulder of the opposition.

Two-footed and with that natural calm we spoke of earlier, Embleton was opening up possibilities.

After a very successful loan at Grimsby Town, this looked like the breakthrough moment. 'My type of player', Ross said approvingly on the touchline in Albufeira.

It has been a truly wretched year for the midfielder since, which made this tweet from the Sunderland AFC account on Monday afternoon all the more heartening: "Elliot Embleton slides an inch-perfect through ball to Josh Hawkes and he fires under the 'keeper".

There is, without doubt, a long road ahead for Embleton.

Circumstances have left the 21-year-old without football for almost a year and Parkinson has been keen to stress that at every opportunity.

Embleton played 45 minutes in the 5-3 win against Fulham U23s and he will need much, much more before he can truly knock on the door.

Parkinson, though, has been clear that he will get a chance.

As he inched towards a return earlier this year, Parkinson was effusive in his praise for what he had seen from the youngster at Grimsby.

In an unusually direct appraisal from the Black Cats boss, he insisted that there would be a moment where Embleton would make a contribution.

COVID-19 put an end to that, and there was another cruel twist when Embleton suffered a thigh injury just minutes into the club's pre-season campaign.

It has left him with a long road to catch up on his team-mates, though Parkinson was heartened by the exhaustive fitness work he came through in the weeks before that injury at Gateshead.

Embleton's greatest strength when available will be his versatility. In the current system, it is possible to see him occupying either of the midfield roles ahead of Grant Leadbitter. He would probably be most comfortable in that space behind the front two currently occupied by Max Power, where he can receive the ball near the box and look for Denver Hume on the overlap, or the striker on the underlap.

He could equally occupy the space occupied by Josh Scowen, or play as one of the attacking midfielders should Parkinson revert to 3-4-3 at some stage.

Clearly, craft will not be enough and one of the big challenges for Embleton will be to execute the hugely demanding physical output Parkinson requires from his forward players.

To that end, Chris Maguire's journey has been instructive.

The 31-year-old remains Sunderland's most creative outlet but his place in the team reflects the significant increase in the distances he is covering during games.

You may notice that while happy to praise him to an extent, Parkinson is always reserved when given the chance to talk up one his major weapons in a press conference.

He will always, without fail, reference the other players who could replace him, and stress the need to maintain those physical standards.

It will be no different for Embleton, who will have to quickly get to grips with that task.

Sunderland's hectic schedule will continue at pace and it could well be a number of games before we see Embleton come close to the matchday squad.

When he does, though, there will be time aplenty to do so and it will be a defining spell for the youngster in terms of his Sunderland career.

Embleton is now in the final year of his current deal.

It has been a torrid year of injury, but the quality of performances he produced at Grimsby mean there would be no shortage of suitors should it not work out.

You hope it will not come to that.

All things considered, Sunderland are in good order on the pitch but twelve months on from those pre-season cameos, the feeling persists Embleton has something his team needs.

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