This season, Tony Mowbray at Sunderland broke his own record.
The starting lineup for Sunderland was, according to BBC Sport, barely 21 years and 8 months old on average.
It has surpassed Sunderland’s eleven, who defeated QPR in September, to become the youngest starting lineup in the Championship thus far this season.
At the weekend, Tony Mowbray was forced to drastically reduce the age of the starting lineup when both Dan Ballard and Luke O’Nien received five yellow cards apiece.
After joining Sunderland, Jenson Seelt was expected to start for the first time, and 20-year-old Nectarios Triantis was substituted in at the last minute to take the place of the injured Dennis Cirkin.
The pair joined the likes of Jobe Bellingham (18), Pierre Ekwah (21) and Jack Clarke (22), while Patrick Roberts was the oldest player in red and white at only 26 years old.
It is far from the first time Sunderland have named the youngest average XI in the Championship, with Mowbray actually claiming ten of the youngest teams so far this season. Their oldest average XI was still only 23 years and seven months.
Speaking to BBC Radio Newcastle, Mowbray admitted that he is very cautious about playing too many inexperienced youngsters.
He said, “There’s a fine balance, and that is what I’m trying to get right.
“We’re excited by these young players. But my ultimate call is whether I think they’re ready to start in front of this player or that player.
“We are trying to win football matches. We have 40,000 supporters, and they come here to hopefully see Sunderland win, not just Sunderland giving a load of young guys their debuts.”
Can Sunderland succeed with kids?
Sunderland have done extremely well to battle for play-offs on two occasions since winning promotion, especially with the age of their players.
Teams frequently falter at the end of the season due to age and inexperience, but the Black Cats very well might have won the play-offs the previous time around if it weren’t for injuries.The young players for Sunderland have been the most impressive this season; Jobe deserves special recognition for his outstanding debut on Wearside.
It’s obvious, though, that we couldn’t just start rookies at every position every week. Luke O’Nien has been criticized in the past, but against Birmingham, we really missed him in the back.
However, it appears as though the team is attempting to oust veteran players like Danny Batth and Alex Pritchard, and I worry that this could come back to haunt us.
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