Jobe Bellingham operated in a deeper role against West Brom on Saturday afternoon.

Keen-eyed Sunderland fans may have noticed something of a tactical tweak during their side’s 1-0 victory over West Brom at the weekend.

The Black Cats still lined up with their familiar central midfield three at The Hawthorns, but head coach Regis Le Bris opted rotate Jobe Bellingham and Dan Neil, allowing the latter to operate in a more advanced position, while the former sat deeper at the base of the engine room. And while many may have been left wondering why Le Bris felt the need to tinker with his tried and trusted formula, it would appear that the Frenchman’s reasoning was fairly simple.

Why did Regis Le Bris change Jobe Bellingham’s position in Sunderland win over West Brom?

Speaking during his latest On the Whistle video in the aftermath of Sunderland’s victory in the Midlands, The Echo’s chief SAFC writer Phil Smith explained: “Bellingham obviously played very much as the deepest-lying midfielder, Dan Neil slightly further ahead. Le Bris said there were two reasons for this. One is that he feels that both players have had a really, really draining season, a huge workload. We all know how many minutes they've played. He just thinks it's a way of freshening things up for them in the last bit of the season, giving them a different challenge - as I say, just to add a little bit of freshness.

“The second of it was he said he basically just wants to look at it more. I think you might remember that when Dan Neil was suspended, Jobe played as the deepest-lying midfielder against Portsmouth earlier in the season and he was excellent in that game. I think Le Bris just feels that he can trust those players, basically whatever position he puts them in, and he just wants to have a look at a few new options ahead of the play-offs.

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“I think he feels he can do that certainly with those players without really damaging the structure of the team and it's not a particularly big risk to do that. I think that's really sensible. I think we might see little bits and bobs of that more between now and the end of the season, just making small tweaks just to see if there's some new options that can be had ahead of the play-offs.

“I think that's the luxury of the position that Sunderland have got themselves into, where they're so far ahead of teams like Middlesbrough, Coventry, Bristol City, West Brom - where every game now for them is going to be a cup final - clearly every game is important for Sunderland but they do have that little bit more scope to rotate a little bit and make some maybe little tweaks.”

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