CAIRO: Sunderland assistant coach Eric Black was more than satisfied with the debut of Ahmed Al-Muhammadi as he praised the Egypt full-back’s overall progress so far.
Al-Muhammadi made his Black Cats debut against Darlington on Saturday, coming on as a first-half sub in place of Lee Cattermole.
Although he didn’t enjoy his usual cross-whipping game, Al-Muhammadi’s contribution seems to be appreciated by Black, who is currently deputizing for manager Steve Bruce.
"I was really encouraged by Ahmed, I thought he did really well when he came on," the Sunderland second man was quoted by Newcastle-based JournalLive.
"Considering he can’t speak a word of English and he’s only been training with us for a week or two, I thought that he deserved enormous credit.
"He came on and lit the place up a little bit. With the long grass unfortunately you couldn’t see the best of him because running with the ball was difficult. But you’d have to be well encouraged by what we saw.
"He’s very disciplined, he’s prepared to stay and be patient in wide areas. If we can get the ball to him then you can see people getting off their feet. He’s very direct and as we can see he can deliver the ball."
Sunderland’s next warm-up game in pre-season will be on July 24 against Hull City.
