TONY Mowbray plans to experiment with Jobe Bellingham over the course of pre-season as he seeks to discover how the summer recruit will best fit into Sunderland's midfield.
Bellingham is versatile and is comfortable playing as a holding midfielder, box to box or in a more advanced role, with Mowbray hugely impressed by the teenager so far and struck by the former Birmingham City youngster's physicality and the high demands he places on himself.
"Jobe is an interesting character," said the Sunderland boss.
"He's very driven, even in the dressing room after the game he's saying 'I need to be better at this, I need to do this better'. He's demanding on himself and as such a young boy he just has to filter into our football club and find his way in the dressing room and grow really. He hasn't played a lot of men's football."
Bellingham made his first Sunderland appearance in the win at Gateshead last weekend and will get more game-time under his belt in the USA with the Black Cats facing three friendlies in the next week or so, the first of which is against San Antonio this weekend.
Mowbray said: "We have to find out whether he's going to be a running eight, a 10, whether he'll play a bit deeper and play six, we'll find that out over the longevity of his games and training programme.
"We're just happy to see him on the pitch. He adds a bit of physicality even though he's very, very young.
"If you put Jobe in your team and Hemir, there's two 6ft 3 footballers. That's something which we fell a bit short on at the end of the season, the physicality in the team."
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- Jobe Bellingham's instant impact at Sunderland revealed - as more youngsters shine
- How Sunderland and the new signings will benefit from United States trip
Although captain Corry Evans won't be back in action until the end of the year, Mowbray is pleased, in general, with how his midfield is shaping up ahead of the coming season.
He said: "Pierre (Ekwah) needs to keep pushing on, keep developing. There are aspects of his game that I'm talking to him about, he has to keep the intensity of his football up because he was really good at the end of the season. He has to make sure he doesn't slip back into old habits because I spent so much time moaning at him to run and tackle and get tight. He just has to get back up to speed.
"Dan Neil grew into the game at Gateshead and looked quite strong running with the ball late in the game."
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