He was only on the pitch for 15 minutes, but in that time Duncan Watmore managed to turn Monday night’s game with Switzerland in England Under-21s’ favour.
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“I’m obviously delighted”, said Watmore, who has broken into the Black Cats first team this season under firstly Dick Advocaat and now Sam Allardyce after picking up a first-class honours degree in economics and business management at Newcastle University.
With Watmore’s intentions clear, Sunderland now have to make his contract a priority, especially ahead of the January transfer window – or they could risk losing him, with Premier League rivals no doubt taking note of his displays for the England Under-21’s. Six months ago, he could select Jack Butland, John Stones, Saido Berahino and Harry Kane in his team, but each is no longer available at under-21 level, and with Eric Dier and Dele Alli also now with the senior team, injuries to Nathan Redmond, Jordon Ibe and James Wilson leave the under-21s with minimal attacking threat.
Without results it would eventually prove hard to persist with his model but the manager has no intention of altering his patient approach, believing that their use of the ball prior to Watmore’s introduction had provided the platform on which the forward ultimately thrived.
“I firmly believe in the way that we go about our work”. Defensively we’ve looked solid and that’s despite having an enormous number of changes as a group. I fully believe in the way that we play and I think the players believe in the way that we play, and that patience has told in the end.
He added: “We knew that we were ending up a little bit narrow and [Watmore’s] width would give us a different option and his pace at that stage of the game, because we’d kept the ball so well and knew the opposition would tire”.
Watmore’s impact earned him the Vauxhall Man of the Match award and more importantly a victory for Gareth Southgate’s side, who remain top of group 9 after four games.
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“It’s always a nice honour for me and to lead them out is fantastic, it’s a pleasure to captain such a great group of lads”.
