Source: Daily_Mail
Ferdinand back to face City as Sbragia targets Sunderland revival
Sunderland[LNB]defender Anton Ferdinand is fit to face Manchester City on Sunday.[LNB]The former West Ham defender has missed with a hamstring injury and he is likely to come back in to Ricky Sbragia's side for Tal Ben Haim, who is unable to play at Eastlands as part of his loan deal.[LNB]Sunderland boss Ricky Sbragia also has Nyron Nosworthy back in his squad but Teemu Tainio is a doubt with a knee problem and Kieran Richardson serves the second game of his ban for 10 yellow cards.[LNB] Back: Sunderland defender Anton Ferdinand (right)[LNB]Sbragia said: `Nyron and Anton are fit to be selected. Nyron probably lacks match practice but Anton is fine, he has been training for five days and had a lot of individual work on his hamstring and seems ok in general.[LNB]`He has been a miss for us. He is a good player and that is why club paid good money for him. He is a good communicator and when he is not in team we do miss him. He has good Premier League experience and if he had played on Saturday against Wigan we would have got something out of the game.'[LNB]Sbragia has played one striker in Sunderland's recent away fixtures and he is pondering leaving Djibril Cisse out again for the game against City, who sneaked through to the UEFA Cup quarter-finals last night.[LNB]Fiight: Ricky Sbragia[LNB]But the Sunderland boss still insists the misfiring pair can and will work together and they aim to find the goals and points to keep Sunderland in the Barclays Premier League.[LNB]Sbragia added: `We keep working at it in training and in practice games and try to get them to combine together.[LNB]`I remember at Bolton Nicolas Anelka and Kevin Davies found it difficult to work with each other at first because they were used to playing on their own and eventually Kevin Davies went to outside right and Anelka went on his own, you couldn't do that with Kenwyne.[LNB]`We have to work on it and hope they gel on Saturday. It had not been working too badly but the goals have dried up but that happens we have to rectify it. There is a lot of rubbish spoken about it. [LNB]`I hope last week was a one-off the players seem ok and we had a chat on Tuesday and everything seems to be going OK. You are never too good to go down and the work ethic has to be better in games. I felt Wigan were there for the taking last week which was the disappointing thing about it.'[LNB] Manchester City v SUNDERLAND: Sbragia given defensive options for crunch showdown with Blues [LNB]MANCHESTER CITY v Sunderland: Hughes' injury list grows after European drama[LNB]SUNDERLAND FC NEWS FROM ACROSS THE NET[LNB][LNB]
