The most recent instance of Sunderland’s inability to convert enough of their opportunities is their loss to Huddersfield Town.
As he waits for a striker to “catch fire” and give Sunderland the goals they need to revive their play-off challenge, Tony Mowbray will keep switching up his striker lineup. Without a goal from any of their four skilled strikers—Luis Hemir, Nazariy Rusyn, Eliezer Mayenda, and Mason Burstow, who is on loan from Chelsea—the Black Cats will head into December.
Before Burstow arrived, Hemir, a young Portuguese player, was given a chance early in the season and was then given a run of games. Next came Rusyn, a Ukrainian who had started four straight games. However, he was forced to miss last night’s home loss to Championship contenders Huddersfield Town due to a groyne injury, so Mowbray gave Spanish striker Mayenda his first start now that he had recovered from his injury.
Still, Sunderland’s strikers have not been able to score any goals. After the loss to the Terriers, Mowbray stated, “Burstow played seven or eight games on the bounce, Rusyn has played three or four on the bounce; last night was Mayenda’s opportunity.”
“Hopefully, one of them takes off and can begin hammering in the goals. The center-forward’s responsibility is to put the ball in the goal.
But I’m not just criticising the strikers; as a team, we create opportunities and occasionally need to score goals from all over the pitch. Generally speaking, though, we have accomplished this over the previous 14 or 15 months. Right now, it just seems to have somewhat dried up.”
Although there are still goals coming from other areas (such as center-back Luke O’Nien’s goal against Huddersfield), they are now coming in less frequently. Mowbray is aware that he needs to find a solution fast because the Wearsiders have only scored eight goals in their last eight games as opposed to eighteen goals in their prior eight games.
He stated: “Going forward, we need to try and find a solution, or else the goals will become a problem. It’s not like we are free-scoring right now. We scored three goals in each of the last two home games [against Birmingham City and Norwich City]. Ever since I’ve been a member of this football team, we have usually found a way to score goals, even during the season when we were devoid of strikers for extended periods of time.
We’re working to bring our young strikers up to speed this year. We had 49 shots on goal in the last two away games [at Swansea and Plymouth].
“I think if your stats stay that high – I’m not sure how many shots we had last night, I haven’t looked – it will turn.”
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