Regis Le Bris makes Milan Aleksic loan decision at Sunderland
Regis Le Bris appears to have ruled out a loan exit for Sunderland midfielder Milan Aleksic despite his lack of game time at the Stadium of Light.
The Serbian youth international was once again an unused substitute in the Black Cats’ victory against Stoke on 7 December as Le Bris continues to snub him.
Aleksic has made just one appearance since joining in the summer with Le Bris identifying the language barrier as the concern and reason behind his lack of minutes but ruled out any exit in January.
As quoted by the Sunderland Echo (10 December), the Frenchman said: “For every player, we will have a specific assessment. Probably, for Milan, he still needs to be part of the environment here. He was in Serbia before, now he is here learning English and he needs to continue with that.
“He is also learning a new style of football. He has many good qualities, and probably spending more time with us is the best option for him. We will see.”
Sunderland must utilise Milan Aleksic more
Aleksic’s only appearance for the Black Cats was in their draw against Millwall where his miss resulted in an equalising goal for the hosts late on.
All in all, his performance was generally decent but massively overshadowed by that missed opportunity which many identified as the turning point in the game.
He has shown his ability as a technical midfielder with an eye for a goal and the short cameo in that encounter provides some optimism as to the impact he can make this season.
But that impact can only arrive with minutes, which he simply isn’t getting.
Sunderland have an excellent midfield trio with Dan Neil, Jobe Bellingham and Chris Rigg and it is unlikely Aleksic will break into the starting line-up any time soon but substitute appearances will be key to getting him up to speed in the English game and they need to come sooner rather than later.
In other Sunderland news, Le Bris revealed one player is a doubt for Tuesday’s encounter with Bristol City.
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