On the latest episode of The Roar podcast, our Sunderland writers discuss Alan Browne's performance against Millwall.
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00:00Yeah, he fitted in well, didn't he? He was solid, dependable. I think his experience in the game is really, really underrated.
00:06He played so much for Preston over the course of 10, 11 years.
00:09I was saying to Jase after the game on Saturday that it's actually a really good way to get his experience into the side,
00:15you know, with that middle three being so young and reduce the breeze, preferring them.
00:20He's had a struggle, obviously, with his injury issues to get into that midfield slot.
00:24So I think having him as an option at right back is really, really positive.
00:28He just went about his business really, really sort of competently, didn't he?
00:32His energy, his positional awareness was good.
00:35I thought he added a little bit of a threat in terms of his passing.
00:39And I think the biggest compliment you could pay him is that if you didn't know anything about Sunderland or Alan Brown
00:45and you were told that he wasn't actually at right back, you would be quite surprised,
00:49because he was just very, very good and very competent and definitely a good option to have,
00:55I think, going into the playoff campaign.
00:58And it just goes to show, doesn't it, at times this season we've had injury or suspension crises
01:04and we've maybe looked at formation changes as fans, as pundits, as laymen, you know, who's going to play where.
01:10And Lebris just does the simple thing, doesn't it?
01:12And nine times out of 10, it works quite well.
01:15And putting Alan Brown at right back and moving Trey Hulme over at left back definitely kept the balance of that defence
01:22and proved, you know, proved to be a good decision in the end.
01:27We know that, like, Serkan and Balaran hopefully won't be too long, but they're obviously not ready yet, Jase.
01:33Would you be prepared to stick with this for a couple of weeks just to give, you know,
01:38if we're looking towards trying to get this big pool of players who are ready and match fit for the playoffs,
01:44do you see this as a way over the next couple of weeks that we can get Alan Brown up to full match fitness?
01:50Yeah, definitely. I think it's presented itself as a really viable option to Lebris.
01:56Obviously not one that you would have necessarily expected sort of a few weeks ago,
02:01but I really, really liked Alan Brown at right back. I was really impressed with him.
02:05You know, we were talking in the press box and I said to James, like, all he really needed to do was, you know,
02:11just don't put a foot wrong, just don't have a catastrophe, be a body, be a presence, bring that experience.
02:16And in the end, he actually provided so much more than that.
02:18You know, I thought that, like James alluded to, obviously defensively he was very dependable.
02:23But on the front foot, I think that, you know, his pedigree as a midfielder really did come to the fore on occasion.
02:28His ability to sort of drop balls over the head of the opposing fullback and sort of bring Robertson and Rigg into the game in that way.
02:35Although it didn't necessarily bear fruit for Sunderland, it looked like, you know, just an added dimension on the front foot,
02:42which I thought was really interesting.
02:44And, you know, he just, you know, this Sunderland team doesn't necessarily find itself like resplendent in terms of its experience.
02:54Like it does lack it in certain aspects.
02:57But I think that you're absolutely right.
02:59This is a good way of getting Brown into the team.
03:01And if he's going to keep on playing the way that he's playing, then I think you could almost argue that it's difficult to drop him.
03:07I know it's only one game and you don't want to get ahead of yourself.
03:09But there's a question that we were asked, like on the whistle video on Saturday.
03:12And someone was like, well, say Leo Kjelde comes back next weekend or whoever it might be.
03:16Like, do you swap it back?
03:18Do you put Hume back at right back and do you drop Brown?
03:21And I really think the Brits would struggle to do that.
03:25I think Brown was so good.
03:26And also the way that it freed up Hume to play on the left.
03:29I think it's a really viable option for him.
03:31And I would be more than happy to see Brown sort of continue in the team until we start to see the likes of a second back, you know, sort of bolster it in that sense.