Régis Le Bris makes 'absolutely' Jules Ahoka admission after impressive Sunderland performance
Jules Ahoka produced a superb performance against Chelsea in the Premier League on Sunday
Régis Le Bris says Jules Ahoka has given him a welcome dilemma when Sunderland return from the international break.
Ahoka had his longest and most significant Premier League outing to date against Chelsea, brought on inside five minutes after Granit Xhaka suffered a calf issue. The midfielder, who arrived on Wearside this season with just a handful of appearances in senior football to his name, produced a man-of-the-match performance as Sunderland returned to form with a 1-0 win that lifted them off the bottom of the Premier League table. Le Bris has so far taken a cautious approach to Ahoka's league exposure, instead giving him the chance to learn and develop in the Europa League and the Carabao Cup.
Xhaka's calf issue may mean he has little choice when Sunderland return at Villa Park, depending on the severity of the injury that has seen him withdraw from Switzerland's upcoming fixtures. Speaking after the win over Chelsea, Le Bris said that the Black Cats needed to be patient with Ahoka whose inexperience has understandably shown at times in his cup performances so far.
However, Le Bris added that the midfielder had shown 'huge potential' and 'absolutely' given him something to think about with the makeup of his league side when Sunderland return after the break.
"Yes, absolutely," Le Bris said.
"But it's part of the journey. Jules had minutes in the Carabao Cup, in the Europa League, struggled at times to manage different situations. But he wants to learn, he wants to understand the mistakes and he's got big attributes.
"He's really young. In Sunderland, we believe that we can have experienced players on one side, but also on the other side, we can develop players and he's one of them."
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Ahoka is one of a number of players who have now headed off in international duty, with the youngster set to represent DR Congo U23s in two AFCON qualification fixtures. With Brian Brobbey having already withdrawn from the Netherlands squad, Sunderland face a nervous wait to see if the rest of their cohort will return fit and firing for the tough assignment at Aston Villa.
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