West Ham United loanee Frederik Alves Ibsen was left out for Sunderland’s 5-1 EFL Cup quarter-final defeat to Arsenal due to a ‘lack of discipline’, Black Cats boss Lee Johnson tells The Chronicle.
With money tight in the Football League, the loan market is more important than ever these days. And Sunderland have certainly made good use of those short-term deals this season.
Nathan Broadhead, an Everton-owned centre-forward, took his tally to six goals in his last six games with a lovely little chip during Tuesday’s last-eight defeat at the Emirates Stadium.
Teenager Callum Doyle, meanwhile, has been a revelation at centre-half since joining from Manchester City.
Bayern Munich starlets Leon Dajaku and Ron-Thorben Hoffmann have played a key role, too, in Sunderland’s latest promotion charge.
Does Frederik Alves have a bright future at West Ham?
Things haven’t quite gone to plan for one of the club’s loanees, however.
Denmark U21 international Alves has played just 34 minutes of league football since joining from Premier League giants West Ham over the summer.
The former Silkeborg starlet had found game-time easier to come by in the cups but he only has himself to blame after being left out of a televised, last-eight clash with one of the biggest clubs in European football.
“With Frederik, it was an attitude error that knocked him out of the squad,” Johnson explains. “A lack of discipline in training.”
Alves, who joined West Ham in a £1.2 million deal 12 months ago, admitted recently that he planned to return to the London Stadium and fight for a place in David Moyes’ starting XI when his time on Wearside comes to an end.
But if Alves cannot command a regular place in the Sunderland side, what chance does he have of ousting Craig Dawson, Issa Diop, Kurt Zouma and Angelo Ogbonna in the capital?
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