Tony Mowbray drops big Sunderland team selection hint as he discusses call to make more changes

Mowbray was in attendance as Isaac Lihadji, Abdoullah Ba, Pierre Ewkah and Jewison Bennette all starred in a 4-1 U21 win over Stoke City on Monday night, and the club's increasingly troublesome injury situation means one or two may well come into the XI at Norwich City on Sunday.

Mowbray says the calibre of opposition on the immediate horizon, however, demands a certain level of experience and strength through the side.

"That time might come but I'm not sure it's right now when we've got four games against teams in the top six," Mowbray said.

"I'm not sure that's the time to put these inexperienced players into the team, but the games after that might well be. We might well drop the odd one in and we might well have to.

"I think you have to be careful that you don't damage young players by putting them into games that you need your strongest team to win because of the strength of the opponent, and then the narrative becomes that they're not very good - I think it's better that they play in games where they can help the team, where we're ultra-competitive.

"These players need experienced players around them to help them integrate and you have to be careful that you don't experiment too much.

"I'm pretty sure that the young players at our club that are just on the periphery at the moment, they will get starts at some point over the next 11 games and we will see what we can do ahead of next year."

Sunderland's disappointing form has checked some of the optimism on Wearside but Mowbray insists he hasn't written off the campaign as destined to finish in mid-table, hence why he will try to keep his XI as strong as possible for now.

He says the time for greater experimentation in the XI would come at the end of the campaign as he builds towards the next, if there were fixtures with little riding on them.

"I fully understand [the mood], yet we've picked up some injury situations and the team isn't as strong as we hoped it would be for the second half of the season.

"There is always opportunity and no one is writing it off, let's say we win the next four games and then go into a run of games where we feel we can definitely be very competitive.

"I fully understand [the mood], the bigger picture for us to keep the young group moving forward together. I am trying to win games and that's why players like young Jewison hasn't played as much, like Isaac [Lihadji] he's got his challenges with the language. "They're immensely talented but it's about integration and if you play these players, Jack Clarke and Patrick Roberts have to come out of the team. Right now, I don't see the benefit of that. They're big calls when we still feel we can compete at the top end of the table.

"If the opportunity is there later in the season, we will do it."