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What The Gaffer Said
David Moyes left his media obligations to Paul Bracewell, who seemed fairly upbeat about the performance.
He said:
It was a tough night with a lot of young players, but we saw it through with a great goal to wrap up a good result.
It was a fantastic goal – we just watched it again in the dressing room – and Adnan [Januzaj] took it really well.
We also had one or two young lads getting another 90 minutes under their belt, which is good for us.
Jordan Pickford came in and did well keeping a clean sheet – he made a great save at 0-0 – so there were some positives tonight.
It's nice to get our first win of the season and the games come thick and fast so we will recover and look forward to the weekend.
We have a few knocks we need to assess and Vito [Mannone] has had an x-ray and there was nothing on that, so we’re just waiting for the results of a scan so we will keep our fingers crossed.
I can't really disagree with any of that. Getting minutes on the pitch in for some of these youngsters is crucial and it was good to get through a game without any fresh injury issues.
Manquillo Signing Takes The Pressure Off Love
Donald Love is struggling. He's clearly lacking in confidence and doesn't seem settled, so with the signing of Javier Manquillo we can now hopefully take the lad out of the firing line and let him bed in properly.
Last night was a complete write off for him and I just hope that he improves. We're pining our hopes now on Manquillo stepping straight in and becoming an instant hit - if he isn't, we're looking at Billy Jones as our first choice right back until January at least.
Next Priority - Central Midfielder
Southampton are very strong through the middle and I fear for us at the weekend if we go into that game without an established player in there.
I suppose the hope is that Lamine Kone returns to the defence to partner Papy Djilobodji, who looks to be fairly competent and has played alright in his first two games, which will free up Jack Rodwell to move further forward.
Paddy McNair also struggled against Shrewsbury and I'm not quite sure whether or not his strongest position is actually in the midfield. I suppose time will tell, but once Lee Cattermole and Jan Kirchhoff are back from injury I think he may struggle for a place in our team. Shrewsbury were hardly imposing, yet McNair had very little influence on the game. Like Donald Love, I suspect that he isn't quite ready yet.
That said, we still are desperate to strengthen in that position. Clearly we cannot rely on the players that we do have to stay fit, so I'm keeping everything crossed in the hope that we buy a real quality midfielder before the window closes next week.
Asoro and Pickford Are Impressive
Both Joel Asoro and Jordan Pickford had good showings last night, and the hope is that they can continue to be an asset to David Moyes in the Premier League.
In Pickford we have a very dependable goalkeeper that has an arsenal of attributes that not many other Premier League goalkeepers can boast. He's got superb distribution, is very quick and is assured on set pieces. His chance to become our established number one is now, and with Vito Mannone on the sidelines it's a perfect excuse for David Moyes to usher in a new era at Sunderland in the goalkeeping department.
Joel Asoro, whilst only seventeen years of age, should be used sparingly this season if at all possible. He's very raw but has immense talent and if we can keep him a part of our first team squad whilst playing for the U23s side then he will surely only improve. He was unlucky not to get one or two goals last night, and had it not been for some superb saves from the Shrewsbury goalkeeper we would probably be sitting here now talking about Asoro as a potential starter against Southampton at the weekend.
