With Sunderland needing some strengthening at the back in the second half of the season, Lee Johnson was able to add some experience in the form of Danny Batth to his squad.

The 31-year-old has played the majority of his career at Championship level, having started his career at Wolverhampton Wanderers without ever playing in the top flight for them, but he still amassed 212 appearances for the Midlands club.

Batth had a brief loan spell with Middlesbrough before joining Stoke City permanently, and whilst he was never quite as regular a feature at the Potters as he'd have liked, the commanding centre-back was still starting games in his final few months at the Bet365 Stadium.

The time came to move on though with his contract expiring there at the end of this season, with Sunderland happily taking him on until the summer of 2023.

 

 

 

 

Batth's experience was clearly needed as Johnson put him straight into Sunderland's starting line-up following his arrival, but he's so far only managed to feature four times in League One.

Having been on the bench once since Alex Neil was appointed as Johnson's replacement, Batth since picked up an ankle injury which means his appearances have been restricted, but his return to action for the club's under-23's this week means that a League One comeback will be looming.

And looking at his stats in his four matches for the club so far suggests they could do with his presence in the coming weeks.

On the defensive end of things, Batth has been quite dominant with an average of 6.33 interceptions, 5.13 aerial duels won and 4.22 successful defensive duels per match, as well as 15.39 recoveries a match as well (per Wyscout).

Don't discount Batth's ability on the ball either as he's averaged 55.31 passes per match with an 80.1 per cent success rate, which for someone who isn't thought of as a natural with the ball at his feet is a good amount of completed passes.

Sunderland have only conceded one goal in their last five matches, so it wouldn't be assumed that they're desperately in need of Batth to return immediately.

But you can never discount experience at this stage of the season and the defender has that in abundance, so Alex Neil will have a solid player to count on when he's fully fit.