Tony Mowbray’s recent statement about Sunderland’s quest for a new striker is causing concern. In an interview with The Northern Echo, the Black Cats’ manager hinted that they might not acquire another forward during the January transfer window. Sunderland has been grappling with a striking vacuum since Ross Stewart suffered a significant injury last January.
Joe Gelhardt temporarily filled in but only managed three goals during his loan stint from Leeds United before returning to his parent club. There were expectations for Sunderland to secure an experienced signing to step into Stewart’s shoes, but the Scottish player moved to Southampton on the transfer deadline day.
Meanwhile, Sunderland made several offensive reinforcements by bringing in Eliezer Mayenda, Nazariy Rusyn, Luis Hemir, and Mason Burstow. However, none of these new signings have prior experience in the Championship, and none have managed to score a goal since Gelhardt’s goal against Huddersfield Town in April. Despite hopes from fans for the recruitment of a proven goal scorer in January, Mowbray has expressed uncertainty about fulfilling that wish.
“I don’t know if we will be signing a striker,” he said.
“I do get asked of course, and sit in recruitment meetings but we haven’t had one yet about January.
“But I think the club will say to me ‘we have Mayenda, Rusyn, Hemir and Burstow on loan from Chelsea, so you have four strikers, what do you want another striker for’?
“That’s probably how I think it will go. But that is OK, that is fine, we will just have to keep working with them.
“We show them their clips after every game to see what they could have done better.
“They are here to learn and grow and hopefully they will become major players.
“I am not sure they are ready to quite help us win games like at Millwall with all the possession we have to win 3-0. We haven’t got that striker at this moment.”
Can Sunderland cope without a new striker?
While claiming that it is ‘fine’ that he will not have an extra striker at his disposal, Tony Mowbray must be annoyed by the club’s failure to bring in a suitable replacement for Ross Stewart.
The 60-year-old has recently been put under a lot of strain following a run of bad form, and while the rest of the club is also struggling, a goalscorer may make all the difference in the second half of the season.
The Black Cats will undoubtedly have to make other signings to compensate, with Amad Diallo hopefully still on their radar.
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