'Passion' - Sunderland chief's glowing verdict on highly-rated Hemir replacement after Liverpool goal
The Sunderland striker netted against Liverpool in the Premier League 2 after travelling to Portsmouth
Graeme Murty has delivered a glowing verdict on young Sunderland striker Trey Ogunsuyi.
The striker, who can also play on the wings, formed part of Graeme Murty’s side last season and scored some vital goals as Sunderland reached the Premier League 2 play-off final against Tottenham Hotspur. The 18-year-old netted a crucial goal in the semi-final against Reading.
However, the player had dropped down to the under-18s side for the start of the 2024-25 season as Sunderland’s under-21s drew with Newcastle United and defeated Middlesbrough during their opening two games with Hemir occupying the striker position for Murty’s side.
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After Hemir’s departure to Juventus Next Gen on a season-long loan, Ogunsuyi has been promoted back to the under-21s set-up and scored a goal during Monday night’s 2-3 loss against Liverpool in the Premier League 2 at Eppleton. It came after the Belgian youth international travelled with Régis Le Bris’ first team last Saturday to Portsmouth as a reward for his patience.
“He's worked really, really hard,” Murty responded when asked about Ogunsuyi’s performance. “So it's been disappointing for him not playing in the team because he wants to play every week. But he's taken to getting his minutes in the under-18s with a real passion and a real intensity to make sure that he maximises that time.
“You can see it in his play. There are things he still needs to work on, but the goal is a really good reward for his understanding of how we press, understanding the triggers, and a good intensity in the press. But then to go from the intensity and passion of pressing the ball to having the calmness and composure to stay on the ball and slot it away is very, very, very valuable. So we'll hopefully be building on that as we move forward.”
Sunderland picked up their first loss of the season in the Premier League 2 against Liverpool at Eppleton with the young Black Cats losing 2-3 on the night after Ogunsuyi had scored an equaliser in the first-half.
“It's a tough game and a tough one to take,” Murty added. “I didn't think we played particularly well. I thought we showed brief flashes of good play, but too often we broke down in really fundamental and foundational things in terms of our quality on the ball, and we made it far too easy for our opponents to take the ball off us.
“I thought that we lacked during individual challenges in 1v1s, and I thought too many of us lost those. So if we're going to do anything in the league or our development for our young players, we need to make sure that we increase their success rate in 1v1s, both with and without the ball.
“The disappointment I feel right now isn't based on anything that we did last year. The disappointment I feel right now is we showed brief flashes of good quality, brief flashes of what we're about, exactly like the build-up for the second goal. It's exactly the play that we talk about, it's exactly the areas we showed the guys in the pre-brief.”