Sunderland succumbed to their fifth straight Championship loss last night at the hands of high-flying Leicester City, veteran striker Jamie Vardy proving to be the difference-maker with an early strike for the Foxes in the 1-0 Black Cats loss.
Mike Dodds will have been encouraged by the performances of some of his players in the narrow defeat – with the stuttering Wearside outfit amassing 17 shots on the Leicester goal to the away side's lesser ten – but the scoreline would still make for grim reading at the end all the same.
There were some notable under-performers from a Sunderland perspective as well, especially Pierre Ekwah in the centre of the park who was substituted off dead on the hour mark by Dodds after a dire showing at the Stadium of Light.
Pierre Ekwah's performance vs Leicester in numbers
With the likes of Chris Rigg standing out in midfield as a lively presence, Dodds' bold team selection to start the energetic 16-year-old somewhat paying off, Ekwah's poor night was further exposed unfortunately by the teenager looking bright.
Whilst Rigg would win duels aplenty – with seven notched up next to his name by the end of the 90 minutes – Ekwah would duck his brave responsibilities on the contrary against Enzo Maresca's men by winning just one duel all game with zero aerial duels even attempted.
The 22-year-old Frenchman was also unable to spark into life from an attacking point of view, failing to register a single effort on Mads Hermansen's goal alongside coming away from the 1-0 loss without a single completed dribble.
The below-par Sunderland number 39 might well find himself axed from Dodds' starting eleven for his side's next second-tier match away at Southampton as a result, with Leo Hjelde at left-back also guilty of having an off-day against the Foxes to further trouble Dodds' upcoming team selections.
Leo Hjelde's performance vs Leicester in numbers
The January recruit from Leeds United also struggled against Leicester, with the explosive Abdul Fatawu for the away side causing all sorts of issues for the former Whites man and the rest of the Sunderland back four to contend with.
The entertaining 19-year-old winger would end the contest at the Stadium of Light with a 100% successful dribble rate next to this name, Dodds' men unable to lay a glove on the Leicester number 18 for large spells of the game.
Hjelde, meanwhile, squandered possession 17 times in total to allow Maresca's men to grow in confidence on their travels further, on top of only completing two accurate crosses from down the channels to attempt to unnerve the visitors when foraying forward.
Minutes played
90
Duels won
5/9
Possession lost
17x
Touches
63
Accurate passes
28/36 (78%)
Accurate crosses
2/6
As can be seen in the table above, Hjelde likely walked off the pitch unsatisfied with his showing and potentially worried that Dodds could roll the dice by selecting a new left-back over the poor 20-year-old for the trip to Saints coming up this weekend.
The Norwegian defender would pick up an unsatisfactory 4/10 rating from Sunderland Echo journalist Phil Smith after the 1-0 defeat, described as 'really struggling' when Leicester bombed forward with venom early on by Smith.
The 6 foot 2 full-back could breathe a little easier over his first-team spot owing to Sunderland's lack of other options that could come in to replace Hjelde, with Niall Huggins and Dennis Cirkin long-term casualties in the treatment room at left-back.
But, with the Black Cats in dire straits at the moment, Dodds could just make some surprising calls regardless involving his starting elevens to try and gain some positive results soon.