One Sunderland gem was told he was the ‘brightest player’ in yesterday’s defeat, despite his early substitution.
Sunderland’s high spirits were dampened this weekend as they fell to a 1-0 defeat to Millwall on Saturday afternoon.
The Black Cats headed into the match after picking up four points from Leeds United and West Brom, as well as keeping five clean sheets in their previous six games.
It was the same problem as usual at the Stadium of Light though, with the hosts dominating possession but failing to create chances.
It was former Sunderland winger Duncan Watmore who opened the scoring, netting the winner with what was The Lions’ only shot on target.
It was another dull, uninspiring performance from Sunderland, while one player was believed to have been the ‘brightest’, despite being one of the first to be taken off.
Chris Rigg made his fourth consecutive start yesterday, having emerged as one of the club’s most ‘dangerous’ players in recent weeks.
Dodds has already admitted that he wants to be careful not to overexpose the midfielder and has only allowed him to play beyond 71 minutes on one occasion, but this weekend saw him replaced after only an hour.
Chris Rigg ‘showed his comfort’ v Millwall
The score sat at 0-0 at the time and Rigg had so far put on a promising performance, with journalist Phil Smith writing in the Sunderland Echo: “Sunderland’s brightest player in the opening exchanges of a poor game, showing nice footwork and a good weight of pass to forge some half chances. Quieter thereafter but again showed his comfort at the level and on the ball.”
Rigg had only 18 touches yesterday, but completed 100% of his passes, won 66% of his ground duels, made one clearance and one tackle.
The 16-year-old’s movement was brilliant and often sprayed passes wide, looking to create opportunities and move us further up the pitch.
Mike Dodds dampened our chances with Rigg’s substitution
While Adil Aouchiche did also look bright when he came on for Rigg, the teenager’s absence was glaringly obvious and it really begs the question as to why he needed to be taken off.
Rigg has been one of our best players since coming into the starting line-up and giving him the opportunity to impress at the end of the campaign doesn’t feel like overexposing him, especially when there is no pressure and these matches are pretty much meaningless now.
If we wanted to win today’s game then we should have kept him on, but instead we took him off and removed one of our very few creative outlets.