Sunderland midfielder speaks openly on his playing style, battling relegation and the potential trauma of suffering the drop

IT was a moment that might yet come to define the relegation battle. With Sunderland leading 2-0 in their ‘must-win’ game at Norwich City, Lee Cattermole twice hacked the ball away from close to the goalline. Then came the grimace, which quickly transformed into a guttural roar.

Highlighted on Match of the Day later that evening, it was an outpouring of emotion and commitment that helped explain why Sunderland are many people’s favourites to win their three-way battle to avoid the drop. It was also a perfect encapsulation of the characteristics that make Cattermole such a captivating player.

Derided by many as a throwback to a less enlightened time, there are few that would not want the Teessider at the forefront of their survival battle. Moments after his rallying cry at the weekend, he was close to physically man-handling Patrick van Aanholt back into position as the full-back threatened to gallop too far forward. Leadership, for the 28-year-old, has always felt natural.

Yet it is only in times such as these, with Sunderland one point adrift of safety with five games remaining, that Cattermole’s qualities tend to be valued. Suddenly, rather than being a liability, his tough-tackling approach is regarded as an asset to be cherished.

Sitting in shorts and a T-shirt as summer threatened to break through at Sunderland’s training ground yesterday afternoon, Cattermole chuckled when it was put to him that he is the ideal player for a relegation battle. Why, with Leicester poised to win the title with a style based on commitment, work rate and a strong team ethic, do the midfielder’s attributes tend to be so regularly underplayed?

“All too often, it’s only at the end of the season when you realise you need a result that everyone works that bit harder,” said Cattermole, who has shrugged of the disappointment of being dropped by Sam Allardyce a month-and-a-half ago to re-emerge as one of the key components of Sunderland’s new-look formation.

“It happens everywhere, but I believe that should be right throughout the team from the start of the season. But it never is – it’s always about systems, formations, how you want to pass the ball.

“Everybody wants to be the prettiest – that’s why I haven’t been in the team loads of times. Then when it gets down to the important bit, everyone just wants to work hard. But that should be the core of things from day one.

“People are starting to believe in that a bit more now because Leicester are doing it. Look at all the players Leicester have – a lot of them have been rejected from other clubs. Everyone will look at Leicester and say, ‘They’re not good enough and they’re not good enough, they shouldn’t be in that position’, but the amount of trust there is there and how strong you become as a team if you’ve got that is incredible.”

The vast majority of Leicester’s players went through the trauma of narrowly avoiding relegation last season, and having formed a strong bond thanks to their efforts under Nigel Pearson, Cattermole argues their exploits in the current campaign should not be regarded as too much of a surprise.

Following his appointment at the King Power Stadium, Claudio Ranieri opted not to make too many changes to the squad that finished the previous campaign so strongly, a stance that is in direct contrast to most of the recent decisions taken at the Stadium of Light.

“The bottom line is that we shouldn’t be in the position we are,” said Cattermole. “That’s always there in my mind. But then I look at what Leicester have done after they stayed up, and it’s everything we haven’t done. Every time we’ve managed to stay up, we’ve just ripped the club apart and started again.”

Provided Sam Allardyce remains in position, the attitude this summer could be different. But first, of course, Sunderland have to avoid relegation.

Cattermole has never suffered the drop – he left Middlesbrough for Wigan the season before the Teessiders exited the top-flight – and as someone who takes immense pride in his performances and achievements, he readily admits he would find it hard to come to terms with the after-effects of relegation.

Having spent seven years at Sunderland, he is fearful about the potentially devastating impact on the club and its employees – “Middlesbrough have changed managers and signed loads of players, but they haven’t been able to get back yet” – but he also worries about the stain it would leave on his own reputation.

Crucially, though, this isn’t a spoiled footballer worrying about where his next pay cheque will come from – it is a matter of professional pride.

“I was chatting with one of the lads on the way back from Norwich, and I asked him if he’d been relegated before,” said Cattermole. “He said, ‘Yes, twice’, and couldn't believe I didn't know.

“He said that you feel like everyone knows and it never leaves you, and I think I'd feel the same way if we are relegated. It’d kill me.

“This is what I do. Football has basically been me for the whole of my life – I’ve never known anything apart from playing football. It’s all I’ve done since I can ever remember. It’s the most important thing in my life by a mile.”

And for all that he is an adopted Wearsider having been born and raised in Stockton, he now regards his own life as intrinsically connected to Sunderland’s fortunes.

“The more time you spend at a club, you get more amongst it don’t you? Especially with me being from up here as well, you live around it,” he said. “We’ve made sure between ourselves that no one is in any doubt about what it’s all about.

“We all have to be able to sit there in the summer and say, ‘Yeah, we did everything we could and couldn’t have done any more’. I think that’s the main thing – if you can sit there and say, ‘I affected it as much as I could, said everything I wanted to say and did everything I wanted to do’, then that’s all you can ask of yourself.”