How Northern Irish media reacted to Sunderland star Trai Hume’s performance in Bulgaria defeat
Trai Hume captained Northern Ireland to a defeat in the Nations League yesterday.
The Sunderland defender claimed the captain’s armband for the first time in their 2-0 win over Luxembourg last week.
A trip to Bulgaria didn’t go quite as planned though as they lost 1-0 in Southeast Europe, leaving them third in their group.
Hume was hailed as a ‘standout performer’ against Luxembourg, but didn’t have quite the same impact yesterday.
Hume’s performance v Bulgaria rated
In his 15th cap for Northern Ireland, the right-back received 6/10 ratings all round for his performance last night.
Belfast Live wrote: “Skipper worked hard but was another who had a tough night.”
Belfast Telegraph said: “Selected for the captaincy by manager Michael O’Neill for the second successive game, with the Sunderland player moving to his more familiar right back role. Big task against tricky counterpart Ilia Gruev and cautioned for a rash challenge late on.”
Hume racked up 54 touches, 31 passes, one header, one interception, two clearances and four successful tackles – more than any other player on the pitch.
It comes as absolutely no surprise that the 22-year-old made the most tackles, given his importance for Sunderland.
Hume hasn’t had much to do for Sunderland this season
Hume made comfortably the most tackles in the Championship last season (152) – way ahead of second place Sam Morsy (119).
He has only made eight tackles this term though, which certainly isn’t discredit to himself, but rather that Sunderland aren’t actually allowing attackers many opportunities in their own half.
