Steve Bruce will consider taking the Sunderland captaincy away from Lee Cattermole after two reckless challenges on his return to Wigan resulted in a second dismissal in three Premier League matches. Bruce, who intends to discuss the issue with his midfielder this week, believes the extra responsibility may have contributed to such an ill-disciplined start to the season.
Two bookings in four first‑half minutes, the first for a clumsy trip from behind on Mohamed Diamé and the second a reckless sliding tackle on Hugo Rodallego, earned a deserved red card. That followed Cattermole's sending off in the opening game of the season, against Birmingham City. Cattermole will be suspended for Sunderland's next two matches, the home Premier League match against Arsenal on Saturday and a Carling Cup tie against West Ham United at the Stadium of Light three days later.
His dismissal, midway through the first half, eventually cost Sunderland, who won only two matches on their travels last season. Asamoah Gyan's debut goal was cancelled out in the closing minutes by Antolín Alcaraz. The frustration over Cattermole's reckless streak has clearly started to tell on Bruce, who was forced to change tactics and keep men behind the ball.
Bruce said: "He made four or five wonderful challenges in the first 20 minutes and that's him, he is competitive and wants to try and win the ball. But in this day and age he has to learn from this otherwise he's going to be in serious trouble and half his career will disappear with suspensions. He's got to learn from this and at the moment he isn't and that's the frustrating thing for me."
Having given Cattermole the captaincy at Wigan and Sunderland, Bruce is now being forced to reconsider. "I made a big decision in the summer to give him [the captaincy] and I will review that, I'll take my time and see. The responsibility might be a little bit too much, but I will have that conversation with him and think about it over the next week or so. He wants to do well and started off brightly but it was obviously a silly challenge he made when you've already had the yellow card."
Wigan, who were humbled by 4-0 and 6-0 home defeats to Blackpool and Chelsea in their first two home matches, will reflect on an impressive turnaround, with this draw following a victory at Tottenham. They will, however, agonise over Mauro Boselli's inexplicable miss with 20 minutes remaining, when he was handed a free header at the far post by the substitute Franco di Santo's left‑wing cross.
The Wigan manager, Roberto Martínez, had few concerns over Boselli's ability, however, having spent £6m to sign him from the Argentinian club Estudiantes. "He's a finisher, he's a goal-scorer and I've never seen him miss in that situation. The Argentinian league has completely different demands physically and he is getting used to playing here.
"He's reaching that level for 55 or 60 minutes and when he gets fully fit he will never miss those sorts of chances because that's his strength."
