Laurens de Bock hasn’t made a Championship appearance for Leeds United since Marcelo Bielsa arrived at Elland Road.
Leeds United’s forgotten man Laurens de Bock has made a bright start to life at Sunderland with Black Cats coach Elliott Dickman praising the left-back after his first appearance in red and white stripes, speaking to the Sunderland Echo.
De Bock has made just eight, error-strewn Championship appearances for Leeds since that ill-fated £1.5 million move from Club Brugge in January 2018 (Yorkshire Evening Post). And following a loan spell at Oostende last season, the Belgian was farmed out again, joining Sunderland on a 12-month deal on the final day of the transfer window.
It is no secret that Sunderland spent the entire summer trying to sign a defender capable of adding experience on the left-hand side of Jack Ross’s backline and, fortunately, De Bock has caught the eye already.
He played the entire 90 minutes in his first outing for the Wearside giants on Monday night as Dickman’s U23 side fell to a dramatic 3-2 defeat to local rivals Middlesbrough.
“The experience the two brought to the side was fantastic,” Dickman said, talking about De Bock and fellow debutant Joel Lynch. “They went about it very professionally so fair play to them.
“I always said to the younger lads when any senior comes down, you can learn from them. They were fantastic for us.”
De Bock will be desperate to prove his worth at Sunderland after being frozen out of the first-team picture once Marcelo Bielsa replaced Paul Heckingbottom at Leeds but he has a challenge on his hands forcing his way into Jack Ross’s starting XI at Sunderland first.
Denver Hume, the young academy graduate, has recovered from a miserable start to the season and even produced an assist during Saturday’s 3-1 win at Accrington Stanley.
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