Sunderland boss gives interesting insight into his plans for Jobe Bellingham and Chris Rigg this season

Tony Mowbray has told Jobe Bellingham to enjoy his football as he sets out on Sunderland career, and says he has no doubt that the 17-year-old can deal with the scrutiny as he copes with the scrutiny that will inevitably come with his surname.

Bellingham looks set to start Sunderland's opener against Ipswich Town after impressing against Real Mallorca last Saturday, and the head coach is determined to ensure the summer signing does not put too much pressure on himself.

"He deals with the pressure really pretty well, to be honest," Mowbray said.

"He has personality. Without knowing his brother, I'm pretty sure he has personality and opinions on what's good and what's not good and what he has to keep working on.

"If anything, he drives himself amazingly hard, sets really high standards for himself, and my advice to him over the past few weeks has been to just try to enjoy playing football and not to be too hard on himself if he misses a pass or misses a tackle.

"As long as we know it is within his makeup to work hard and try to help our team, we will support you along the way, so you're allowed to miss passes or miss tackles as long as there's an intent there to do it right.

"I think fans at this football club will forgive footballers as long as they know there's an intention there to work as hard as they can."

Bellingham looks set to start the campaign in the number ten role but Mowbray has said that he will play a number of midfield roles over the course of the campaign, both to develop his understanding of the game and also to get a better understanding of what his best position is in the long term.

Mowbray will rotate Bellingham with Bradley Dack and Chris Rigg, while Alex Pritchard is also a strong contender for the number ten slot in the longer term.

"He has the ability to play anywhere in midfield for us," Mowbray said.

"Some days he will play alongside either Ekwah or Neil. You can see the moments the flashes when he broke in behind, he breaks through the lines with his athleticism.

"He's not full power - if you look at his brother who is a few years older, the power is there. Jobe's power is going to come because he is the same sort of frame.

"He's training every day and working, it'll be raw power.

"At the moment he has got the desire to run in behind.

“Jobe has done well in pre-season, but I see a 17-year-old boy as well," Mowbray added.

"I see a 17-year-old boy with lots of personality and lots of opinions on football, and he’s very driven to try to create and carve out his own career. I’m pretty sure he’ll get there, but at this moment, in my mind, unless he over-excels, he’ll be sharing game time with [Bradley] Dack and [Chris] Rigg.

"We will rotate around in that position, and I think we can afford to do it because of the players we’ve got there.

"We’ve got a really exciting 17-year-old and a really exciting 16-year-old, and then we’ve got a lad in Dack who’s missed two years because of two cruciate injuries.

"I think the young ones will learn massively off Dack, and yet Dack won’t play 46 games for us. Neither will Jobe or Chris. We’ll roll them around and rotate them about, and see if we can get the best out of them as we go."

Mowbray has had a similar message for Rigg, who he said earlier in pre season is pushing hard to be a first-team player this season.

The head coach, though, knows there will be ups and downs along the way."I guess that will depend on his performance level," Mowbray said of Rigg's first-team prospects.

"If his performance level is as it was at Hartlepool on Tuesday night, then he’s probably struggling to get in anywhere around it, but if he shows what he did in San Antonio, when he was running in behind and playing nice passes, then that’s a different story and he’s got every chance. Listen, that’s probably a bit harsh on him because he is a young boy. He’s got wonderful qualities.

"I talked to him today about the inner child in us all. As professional footballers, whenever you were a kid playing, you were the best player in your town, your school, your village, and you would never pass to anybody, you’d just dribble past everybody and score. I was a big centre-half and I used to do that, so just imagine what the talented footballers do.

"I want them all to search for that inner child in themselves and just play football. Just go and enjoy it. I say to Patrick and Jack all the time, ‘You’re allowed to lose the ball – you’re not doing your job if you don’t lose it now and then because you’re not dribbling and taking people on’.

"If every time you get it, you’re passing backwards or inside to someone, then you won’t be playing for this team. You have to dribble and attack people. Don’t worry about losing it. I won’t be shouting at anyone if they lose it – I’ll be shouting at them if they don’t ever attack and be positive. I think that’s why the team was successful last year – because you’ve taken the leashes off players and they’re not scared to lose the ball. They have to be positive, attack, and do what they’re good at.”