TONY MOWBRAY likes to separate his Sunderland team into ‘artists’ and ‘soldiers’. There are the artists, who provide the creativity and vision – think Jack Clarke and Amad Diallo – then there are the soldiers, who do the dirty work to enable the artists to flourish – think Luke O’Nien and Corry Evans.

Then, somewhere in between, there is Dan Neil, part-artist, part-soldier, but full-time central midfielder. In a world in which functionality and flair are often seen as diametrically opposed, the 21-year-old sees no reason why it should not be possible to combine the two aspects of a footballer’s repertoire.

“I’d like to say I’m a little bit of both,” said South Shields-born Neil, when asked which of Mowbray’s epithets best described his own style of play. “I’m a box-to-box midfielder really, a number eight. That’s how I see myself, and in my game, I need to be doing both things – I need to be winning the ball back, but then I also need to be contributing higher up the field.

“I need to be progressing the ball forward and creating chances. I’ve still got a lot to work on in both sides of the game, but this experience I’m getting in the Championship is invaluable. I can only keep improving and learning from it.”

Three or four decades ago, the all-round midfielder was an English footballing staple. Bryan Robson was the ideal example, as comfortable thundering into a defensive challenge as he was hammering home a long-range finish or caressing a through ball into the box.

In the Premier League era, it has become much more common to pigeon-hole midfielders into a primarily defensive or attacking role. Claude Makelele and N’Golo Kante mopped up in front of the back four and were not expected to forage forward. Frank Lampard and Paul Scholes were free to make breaks into the box without having to worry about what was going on 30 or 40 yards behind them.

As with everything, though, footballing fashions tend to be cyclical, and watching Jude Bellingham’s World Cup performances for England in Qatar, it was impossible not to be struck at the teenager’s versatility and ability to adapt to whatever midfield role he was given.

Neil watched Bellingham’s World Cup displays with a mixture of admiration, incredulity and a scholarly desire to take notes and improve. He is certainly not saying he is anywhere close to the Borussia Dortmund midfielder’s current levels – but he is keen to mimic what Bellingham has been doing in an England shirt as he looks to further his own career.

“If you look at the way central midfielders play now, I think it’s changing a bit,” he explained. “I think you maybe had your defensive midfielders and attacking midfielders in the past, but I think now there’s more of a move towards players who can do both.

“I think Jude Bellingham is probably the best example of that – he’s somebody that goes onto the pitch and does a little bit of everything, and does it at a very high level as well. I think I see myself as that type of player.

“Growing up through the academy system, I’ve been tossing and turning all the time with questions about what position I am – whether I’m a holding midfielder or more advanced or bang in the middle. Personally, I think I need to be all three and just get that balance between being the artist and the soldier that the manager talks about. I think I can do a bit of everything.”

The Northern Echo: Sunderland midfielder Dan NeilSunderland midfielder Dan Neil (Image: Ian Horrocks)

If Neil is trying to get the individual balance of his own game right, then the same is true of Sunderland as a team. The Black Cats have shown they can tear teams apart with their attacking flair this season – most notably in the electrifying away win at Reading – and have also proved they are capable of digging in to grind out a result when required.

Occasionally, though, they tip too far in a certain direction, and just as Mowbray bemoaned his players’ willingness to sit back after they claimed the lead against West Brom on Monday night, so Neil has detected a tendency to fail to build on a promising position in a game.

In two of their last three defeats, Sunderland have failed to take anything despite having led during the game, a frailty that could well prove costly unless it is stamped out.

“When I’ve watched the games back, some of the football we’ve played has been really, really good,” said Neil. “Probably one of the best in the league that I’ve seen so far this season. But I feel that, sometimes, we can be a bit naïve when we go ahead and we don’t really kill teams off, unlike what we did against Millwall.

“I feel like a lot of times this season, we sink and sink and sink instead of really going and putting our foot on the throat to kill a game off. In that scenario, we just need to keep playing as we were when it was 0-0. If there’s one thing I would say we could improve on, that’s it.”

Nevertheless, Neil takes satisfaction from the way in which Sunderland have adapted to life in the Championship and successfully re-established themselves in the second tier. Saturday’s trip to Hull City marks the halfway point of the season, and the Black Cats head to Humberside halfway up the table, sitting in 11th position.

“We want to be as high as we possibly can be,” said Neil. “But I think if you’d said to any Sunderland fan, player or staff member at the start of the season that we’d have been around the play-off places at this point, they would have snapped your hand off for that opportunity.

“We just need to keep building momentum and keep going, and see if we can stay around there when it comes to the end of the season.”