'Scrambles, scraps and he'll have a battle' - Neil Warnock lavishes praise on Sunderland player

Neil Warnock has hailed Sunderland starlet Jobe Bellingham for the “dirty” parts of his game and the role he plays in the Black Cats’ midfield.

Head coach Regis Le Bris is yet to win a match in English football without Bellingham in his starting XI, and the 19-year-old’s precociousness has been enough to attract the attention of a number of high profile suitors in recent months. The likes of Manchester United, Arsenal, and Tottenham Hotspur have all been touted as reported admirers.

On Monday evening, Bellingham featured in Sunderland’s late 2-1 defeat at the hands of Leeds United, and focusing in on the teenager during Sky Sports’ pre-match coverage of the clash at Elland Road, former Black Cats striker Michael Bridges said: “He's got maturity, he's got class, he's a character... I look at him on the field and I just think he's a superb athlete.

“The intelligent levels that he has to understand when to get into space, what he does with himself. He scores goals and he's a box-to-box midfielder that breaks play up but also gets on the end of things. When he finds himself in space and goes forward, I just think he's so dynamic and he's got such a confidence.”

When asked if Bellingham’s influence at such a young age was unusual, fellow pundit Warnock added: “Well, it is unusual but I've got to tell you, when his brother [Jude Bellingham] played for Birmingham, he played at 16 and we were playing against him. I said to my central midfield player, ‘You can sort this kid out’. He was only a kid and he never got near him all night and he [Jobe] is going to develop like that.

“He's only going to get better, I think. Because what he does good - what you don't [get when you] look at a lot of midfield players - he does the dirty part of the game. He scrambles, he scraps and he'll have a battle and he'll put his foot in. I like that. I know he's going to score his goals but from a manager's point of view, I like the muck of nettles, [that’s] what I call it. I like that part of his game, me.”

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Bellingham’s combative nature, while an asset for Sunderland this season, has also left him on the brink of a potential disciplinary issue over the coming weeks. The midfielder picked up his ninth booking of the campaign against Leeds on Monday, and should he receive one more caution between now and the end of the Black Cats’ Championship clash with Preston North End on March 11th, when an amnesty comes into effect, he will be hit with a two-game suspension.

Addressing the prospect of a ban in his post-match press conference, Le Bris said: "For sure, we need to manage this. We'll see, because he is very important for us. We'll recover from this game and then see after that."

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