Mike Dodds’ Callum Styles admission for Sunderland game with Leicester
MIKE DODDS has admitted he does not know where Callum Styles’ best position is, and concedes he is still having to experiment with the versatile Hungarian.
Styles joined Sunderland in a January move from Barnsley, but was forced to sit out his first few weeks as a Black Cats player after undergoing appendix surgery shortly before moving to the North-East.
When he was signed, former boss Michael Beale hinted that he was considering playing the 23-year-old as a left-back, even though he had spent most of his time at Barnsley playing in an advanced midfield role.
When he plays for Hungary, Styles tends to line up in either central midfield or on the left-hand side, but while he started his first game in Sunderland colours playing as a left wing-back, he found himself positioned on the right of midfield as the Black Cats lost at Norwich City at the weekend.
It remains to be seen where, or even if, he plays when Sunderland host Leicester City tomorrow, with Dodds admitting he is still pondering how to get the best out of the January arrival.
“We’re still getting to know Callum, I’ll be honest with you,” said the interim boss. “He’s got really good technique, when he was at Barnsley he played so many positions. He played left-back, left wing-back, as an eight, he went on loan to Millwall and played predominantly down the left side.
“We used him off the right, but obviously in a very narrow position in and out of possession because of some of the threats that Norwich had with the ball, and we also felt that he could pick up some dangerous positions when we had it. The pleasing thing from the game was that we did do that at times, albeit not frequently enough. What we worked on I did see pockets of.
“Callum, fortunately or unfortunately (for him), is very versatile and as a head coach, those kinds of players are worth their weight in gold. You can slot him into different positions on the pitch and he is a great kid, he asks a lot of questions.
“Right now, if I’m being brutally honest, I don’t know exactly what his best position is. I know where he’s played previously, and we’ve got to find the best way to utilise him here.”
