Sunderland head coach Tony Mowbray has admitted that the club are yet to have a meeting about recruitment ahead of the January transfer window amidst a centre-forward crisis for the club.
The Black Cats are going through a difficult spell of form at the moment, having suffered back-to-back defeats away at Plymouth Argyle and at home to Huddersfield Town which was compounded by a 1-1 draw away at Millwall at the weekend.
The result left Mowbray’s side ninth in the Championship but just three points behind the final promotion place. However, Sunderland have a gruelling run of fixtures over the next fortnight and will face West Bromwich Albion, Leeds United and Bristol City.
Jack Clarke scored from the spot-kick on Saturday at The Den to rescue a point for his side which was his tenth of the season as the attacker is currently sitting top of Sunderland’s goalscoring charts and third in the overall Championship table behind Southampton’s Adam Armstrong and Blackburn Rovers’ Sammie Szmodics.
However, Sunderland’s reliance on Clarke is quite stark as the winger has bagged 34% of the team’s goals this term, whereas Nazariy Rusyn, Hemir Semedo, Mason Burstow and Eliezer Mayenda have all failed to find the net once.
The head coach has stated before that the club need to be in the market for a new striker, but in a recent interview, Mowbray has hinted that signing another centre-forward may not be on the cards [quotes via Sunderland AFC News]:
“I don’t know if we will be signing a striker.
“I do get asked of course, and sit in recruitment meetings but we haven’t had one yet about January,” he continued.
“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.
Writer’s View
Sunderland’s lack of a potent striker is more worrying than this current run of form. The Black Cats are merely three points off the playoff spots which is not the end of the world, but an injury to Clarke could spell disaster for the club.
A striker is desperately needed in January to alleviate the burden on Clarke to keep scoring. As a result, Mowbray’s comments will certainly be worrying to hear for Sunderland supporters.
