Timothée Pembélé was able to make his first appearance in a red-and-white shirt on Monday night
Mike Dodds feels Timothée Pembélé will make Sunderland an even more unpredictable opponent as the teenager approaches his senior debut.
Pembélé arrived on deadline day from PSG, needing to improve his fitness away from the main group as he recovered from a long-term injury, and then suffered a setback that has stopped him from playing so far this season. He has already been back in full training for about a fortnight and made his first appearance in a red-and-white kit at Eppleton on Monday night, playing 45 minutes as Sunderland U21s lost 1-0 to Arsenal.
Sunderland will want to gradually develop the 21-year-old before exposing him to Championship games, but he is obviously closer than ever to making his debut.
Dodds, who has now been elevated to assistant head coach under the recently appointed Michael Beale, stated last week that the full back will help his team attack and harm opponents from deep positions.
“I was going to say he’s a different type of full back [to what we’ve got] but to be fair I think our full backs have been that good, they’ve shown they can do everything,” Dodds went on to say.
“Timmy is more of a flying full back, he’s very quick, athletic, and dynamic.” He’ll assault from deeper locations, adding a distinct dimension to the team. The football team deserves credit for the manner they recruited because the group is so diverse. Because of all the different alternatives we have, analyzing us when Timmy is back and playing will be difficult.”
Dodds was in the stands with Beale on Monday night, and the new head coach received two further bonuses when both Aji Alese and Jay Matete returned from long-term injuries. Dennis Cirkin did not play in the game, but he is back in training and should be able to return from a hamstring injury soon.
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