Rosler’s the man to ensure Will buckles down

by Chris Dunlavy

GUS Poyet didn’t get much right as Sunderland manager, but one of his biggest blunders was luring Will Buckley from Brighton.

Sure, he’s a decent player, but Premier League? Even Brighton fans couldn’t believe that, especially having watched the winger dazzle and disappoint in equal measure.

On form, Buckley can torment any full-back. Quick, tricky, good on the turn – just ask Newcastle, whose entire back line were eating dust as the 22-year-old bundled them out of the FA Cup in 2012, arguably his finest hour in a Brighton shirt.

Yet Buckley’s form was as fitful as a broken strobe, and just as irritating.

For every man-of-the-match performance, there were five where he was marked to death, got injured or simply vanished into thin air.

No young player is a paradigm of consistency. Everyone has a bad day. But those are faults to iron out in the Championship, not with top-flight strugglers in a grim relegation battle. Poyet didn’t mind a luxury player. Dick Advocaat certainly does. Is it any wonder the Dutchman found no room for Buckley in his 25-man squad?

Now he has joined Leeds with much to prove. On paper, it is a match made in heaven. Leeds have lacked genuine pace and a creative spark since Robert Snodgrass headed for Norwich.

Manager Uwe Rosler, meanwhile, is not the type to accommodate slackers. A disciplinarian who demands hard work, he simply will not allow Buckley to have the 90-minute strolls that Poyet indulged.

If Buckley can seize his chance – and I mean more than once a month – Leeds have got a matchwinner on their hands.