Tony Mowbray spells out exactly what qualities Sunderland need as their striker search continues
Sunderland boss Tony Mowbray has outlined the type of striker the Black Cats are trying to bring to Wearside this week
Sunderland are looking to add a striker who brings more mobility and pace in the final third, according to Tony Mowbray. In the wake of Saturday’s win against Rotherham United, the Black Cats boss was hopeful that a new striker would arrive in the early part of this week ahead of this weekend’s trip to Coventry City.
Sunderland have been linked with a number of players including Fulham’s England U20 international Jay Stansfield, but as yet no new frontman has materialised on Wearside – although there is still time for a signing to be completed in time to play against the Sky Blues. With Scotland international Ross Stewart expected to be out of action for at least another month as he recovers from an Achilles injury, and with summer addition Eliezer Mayenda set to be sidelined for some time with a hamstring issue, as things stand Sunderland’s 20-year-old Portuguese frontman Luis Hemir is the club’s only fit senior striker.
Hemir has not started Sunderland’s last two games, with Mowbray instead opting to start Bradley Dack as a deep-lying forward, and then asking him to swap places with Jobe Bellingham against Rotherham to good effect as the latter scored twice in the 2-1 victory. But Mowbray has outlined the kind of striker he wants the club to sign before the transfer deadline to give him extra attacking options.
“We’re trying to control the game on most occasions, and then it’s about seeing whether teams are going to press or sit off in a block,” said Mowbray. “That’s why ultimately you need some mobility at the top end because if people are sitting in a mid-block and your centre-half doesn’t think they can get through the lines, sometimes you have to go over the top with some speed and some threat.
“At the moment that’s what’s missing from this team, because that’s not really Hemir or Dack’s game. Jobe has that powerful running action that can pressure people, of course, but it’s not necessarily speed.
“If we can get a striker in who wants to run in behind and wants to stretch them, it’ll give us more space us to play in – that’ll help us create more chances and win more games.”
Sunderland lost their first two games of the Championship season, with newly-promoted Ipswich Town winning 2-1 at the Stadium of Light on the opening weekend, and they then suffered a 2-1 on the road at Preston North End. But they came from behind to beat Rotherham at the weekend and, while conceding the first goal for a third successive game was far from ideal, Mowbray says that overall the performances in the first three games have been positive, even though they have only three points to show for it.
He said: “I think the mood has been good. After each game I tell the players what I think, and if I think the performance is poor and nowhere near the levels, they get told.
“Generally, we’ve been pretty positive about what we’ve done, the possession we’ve had, the chances we’ve created and how we’ve tried to build. We’ve tried to be brave and strong with them in encouraging them to keep doing that, even at 1-0 down you have to still try and control the game, try and get the ball through and not just knock long balls up and hope it will drop for us.
“Somewhere down the line, I hopefully won’t be asking for patience. We’re trying to play a brand of football where we dominate the ball in most games, even though there’ll be some where that’s not the case and our next home game against Southampton might be one of those.
“We knew against Rotherham we’d have more of the ball and it was about breaking them down, getting shots away, getting in behind them – which we probably did even more often against Preston. It’s just a process, I think.”
