Sunderland Ace Has Chance To Kickstart Season vs Brighton After 'Difficult' Run

Sunderland boss Regis Le Bris has admitted that centre-back Omar Alderete has endured a "difficult" start to the campaign, but is hoping that he will return to form and full fitness following the international break ahead of the visit of Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday.

During the summer's World Cup, Alderete suffered a knee injury in action for Paraguay, which continued to impact the defender throughout Sunderland's pre-season preparations and in the opening stages of the campaign.

On opening weekend, 29-year-old Alderete struggled during Sunderland's 2-1 defeat at Ipswich Town, making a grave error in possession which led to former Black Cat Jack Clarke's dramatic winner.

Additionally, with Kevin Danso making a stellar start to his Sunderland career, this has provided further competition in the central defensive slots within Le Bris' squad, but the Black Cats boss believes the international break will be a positive for the Paraguayan.

Alderete's last outing for Sunderland came in the 1-0 Europa League win over AZ Alkmaar, in which he started the clash but was withdrawn after 52 minutes for Dan Ballard, who is now sidelined for multiple weeks following his injury during the break.

Within the internationals period, Alderete featured twice for Paraguay in their friendly victories over Bolivia and Colombia, and Le Bris believes his 151 minutes in the tank will bode well for the defender in Sunderland's upcoming run of seven games in 21 days, starting with this weekend's visit of Brighton.

Le Bris told his pre-Brighton press conference on Alderete: "He (Alderete) struggled with an injury during the World Cup, and then the pre-season was tough for him.

“He has a heavy profile and he needs game time and minutes to be at his best.

"I think the games with his national team will have helped, and we will need him for the next block of matches.”

Against Colombia, Alderete appeared to be back to his best despite it being a friendly, with the Sunderland defender helping keep a clean sheet with eight defensive contributions, and also showed his ability in possession with eight passes into the final third, in timely fashion.

With Ballard now sidelined for around a month with his hamstring injury picked up for Northern Ireland during the break, Alderete could potentially be thrust back into the Sunderland starting XI for the Seagulls clash, depending on how Le Bris sets up against Fabian Hurzeler's high-flying side.

Given that Alderete is naturally left-footed, this offers Sunderland better progression with possession from defence, and would also allow the marauding Nordi Mukiele to operate at full-back rather than central defence, where he can impose himself on the opposition more as he often does so effectively for the Black Cats.

With Thomas Meunier and Trai Hume available to operate on the right side of defence, Le Bris is well-stocked with defensive options, and it will be interesting to see how the Sunderland boss lines up his backline against Brighton this weekend.

"It’s not a tough (selection) decision because we have several options, which is good,” added Le Bris.

“If we play against a mobile, intense team we can say, ‘This profile fits this game’. But if we are playing against a different team, maybe less mobile, maybe we say, ‘Well, this set-up is better’. It’s really positive to have different options.”

When Alderete is at his finest, the former Getafe defender is extremely cool and composed in high-pressure situations, and offers great physicality and defensive awareness for Sunderland, but those displays he enjoyed so often last season have yet to be seen this campaign given his niggling injury.

Whether his Sunderland return comes against Brighton or in one of the following fixtures, the onus is now on Alderete to showcase his best defensive form for Sunderland once again, with the necessity heightened further amid Ballard's period on the sidelines.

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