Sunderland midfielder Dan Neil reveals interesting role under Tony Mowbray - and playing like Jude Bellingham

You’d expect that from any player working his hardest in football, never mind a North East-born Sunderland fan who came through the ranks at the Academy of Light.

The 21-year-old midfielder has been a constant for the Black Cats this season, first under Alex Neil and then under Tony Mowbray. Dan Neil has played 21 times out of a possible 22 in the Championship.

It has been a learning curve, that is for sure. There was the red card away to Sheffield United at Brammall Lane, and Sunderland have also surrendered leads against the likes of QPR, Burnley, Coventry City and now West Brom.

Despite this, however, Mowbray still wants his players to operate with a degree of freedom and autonomy on the pitch.

“The gaffer wants is to almost play freely,” Neil told The Echo after the West Brom game. “I think he has used this in his press conferences before but he wants us to be artists and soldiers and he wants us to have that good balance. The artists to go and play free.

"That’s like your Patrick Roberts, your Jack Clarke, your Pritchards but then you have that balance with Danny Batth, Corry Evans, Luke O’Nien who are going to win the ball back and give it to them types of players and I think you can see in spells that we are playing really really good football. There’s just a few things we need to brush up on defensively but I think it has been good so far."

Asked if he was a soldier or a painter, Neil added: “I’d like to say I’m a little bit of both. I’m a box-to-box midfielder really, a number eight. That’s how I see myself, and in my game, I need to be doing both things – I need to be winning the ball back, but then I also need to be contributing higher up the field.

"I need to be progressing the ball forward and creating chances. I’ve still got a lot to work on in both sides of the game, but this experience I’m getting in the Championship is invaluable. I can only keep improving and learning from it.

“If you look at the way central midfielders play now, I think it’s changing a bit,” he explained. “I think you maybe had your defensive midfielders and attacking midfielders in the past, but I think now there’s more of a move towards players who can do both.

“I think Jude Bellingham is probably the best example of that – he’s somebody that goes onto the pitch and does a little bit of everything, and does it at a very high level as well. I think I see myself as that type of player.

“Growing up through the academy system, I’ve been tossing and turning all the time with questions about what position I am – whether I’m a holding midfielder or more advanced or bang in the middle. Personally, I think I need to be all three and just get that balance between being the artist and the soldier that the manager talks about. I think I can do a bit of everything.”