Patrick Roberts told to bide his time as he will have a ‘huge part to play’ in Sunderland’s season

Patrick Roberts will have a ‘huge part to play’ for Sunderland this season according to Alex Neil, despite finding his gametime severely limited so far. Neil has spoken many times in the early week of the campaign about the difficulties of having to leave good players out, especially when it is due to the system he has chosen rather than form or fitness.

And he says Roberts has arguably been the chief casualty in that respect, with Neil’s decision to play with a back three meaning that the ex-Manchester City forward has yet to start a league game and has played just 41 minutes of football divided across two substitute outings. But the head coach insists that Roberts’ time will come, and he can be a key player this season in the Championship just as he was in the second half of last term as Sunderland secured promotion via the play-offs.

“He’s arguably the most affected at the moment, Patrick, which has been frustrating and difficult for him,” said Neil. “But, as he has shown before, Patrick is a top player with great quality and he was a massive factor in our success last year, and I think he has a huge part to play this year.

READ MORE: Alex Neil on the rare ‘selfless dressing room’ culture that has been built at Sunderland

“At the moment he is having to just keep his head down, work hard, and bide his time, but his time will come. I spend a lot of time speaking to Patrick because that type of creative player want to get on the pitch and show what they can do, but just at this moment in time it is difficult for me to fit him into the team right now.

“There will be a point, though, where he becomes vitally important for us – it might be next week, it might be the next game, it might be a few weeks’ time, I’m not quite sure.”

Neil has said previously that he spends a lot of time with players who are not part of the starting XI, explaining his decisions and keeping them involved. He said: “Taking it away from just Patrick, when you think of all the players who are not starting they have to keep their own motivation and ambition really high.

“They have to train really well, and what I say to them is that if they do that and their attitude is tops, all you’ll ever do is get closer and closer to the team, whereas if you don’t train well and your attitude is not good, you’re only ever going to get further and further from the team.

“In some respects, going back to Patrick, he is really unfortunate not to be in the starting XI at the moment but it’s more down to shape than how he is performing or going about his work. That can sometimes be even more difficult to understand as a player.

“I spend a lot of time with him trying to help him understand the difficulty for him just now. But, for instance, in the game last weekend against QPR he was the first substitute I brought on to go 4-3-3 because he has so much to offer.”

READ NEXT: