Sunderland manager questions DeAndre Yedlin's experience in relegation battle

DeAndre Yedlin's loan to Sunderland hasn't exactly been the most successful experience for the young American. While he's not exactly whithering away on the bench, he's fallen out of favor and been relegated to being used sparingly as a substitute.

Sunderland manager Sam Allardyce shed some light on why Yedlin hasn't been a favorite of his when filling out his teamsheets. The veteran of many Premier League campaigns, many of which involved being in the thick of a relegation battle, believes that experience can go a long way in determining which clubs stay up. Experience that Yedlin does not have and Billy Jones, the player who has taken over at the right back spot for the Black Cats, does, according to Allardyce.

"Billy has got a lot of experience and we've got DeAndre, who has got very little experience at this level."

"He [Yedlin] has got a lot of qualities but without that experience, it's a massive ask to perform at the consistent level that you need to at this stage of the season, under the pressure that we're all under."

-Sam Allardyce; Source: The Independent

Well, those aren't encouraging words from a manager tasked with bringing up a young player and molding them into a Premier League player. This season was supposed to be about letting Yedlin go through growing pains. Instead it's devolved into him being cast aside by a manager scared to play young players with his job on the line.

There's nothing much that Yedlin can do except keep his head down in training and work as hard as possible. The Premier League season is two-thirds of the way complete, he just needs to tough out the remainder of this loan and hope for a better situation next season.