Sunderland boss David Moyes is deeply considering a change in the formation to a three-man central defensive style of play following the Deadline-Day snag of defender Jason Denayer.
Denayer made the move to Wearside on a season-long loan from Manchester City on Wednesday, with Moyes making desperate attempted to boost his defensive options despite a growing injury list and the current situation surrounding Lamine Kone.
Open up os oppotunities
Kone was forced to remain with Sunderland despite many attempts to leave the club for Everton, with the new signing, Moyes now has four centre-halves at his disposal.
Things are looking up the back line as John O’Shea returned to training with the Republic of Ireland ahead of Monday’s World Cup qualifier with Serbia, Papy Djilobodji, and Denayer, with that in mind Moyes, is thought to be pondering a reshuffle in defense to accommodate his recent brought in talent.
"We brought in Jason, who can play centre-half and full-back,” said the Sunderland boss.
The Belgium international spent some time at Celtic where he was spoken about “highly” which showed when he was named “Scottish Young Player of the Year.”
When the 21-year-old come on the marker “late Wednesday night” Moyes snapped up the centre-back as having Kone, Djilobodjo and O’Shea not being enough to get Sunderland “through the season.”
The current injury list and possible “suspensions” so the ability to have four centre-back choices is given Moyes “flexibility to play three at the back” alongside full-backs, which will be used at times during the season as it comes.
Not a successful transfer window
However, Denayer wasn’t the only one to make the swap for the Stadium of Light, as Sunderland breaking their transfer record of £13.6 million for midfielder Didier Ndong.
Ndong became available at the start of the week and Moyes moved quickly to capture the player from Lorient.
“We had been pushing to bring in Ndong for quite a while, but we kept getting the message back that he wouldn’t be leaving,” said Moyes
Moyes was looking for “good energy” which he has, he has age on his side and will “improve with time.”
With the two arrivals was pretty much the highlight of the Black Cats deadline-day dealings as a number of deals fell through.
Notably, Moyes failed in his attempts to land an alternative goalkeeper to Jordan Pickford with the recent announcement Vito Mannone is on the injury list and no current back-up at the club.