THE WINGS OF SUNDERLAND

Following yet another poor performance on the road for the Black Cats on Saturday, it sees them with just 24 goals this season, with just Nottingham Forest (23) and Wolves (15) with less. As soon as the second goal went in at the London Stadium, I just could not see a way back into the game. For me, that comes down to our complete lack of creativity out wide.

Last season, wing play was a key part of how we created chances, whether it be through Romaine Mundle, Patrick Roberts, Tommy Watson or even Enzo Le Fee. This year it has been mainly through the centre midfield whether that be Granit Xhaka or Le Fee again. We have had to rely a lot on long throws and set pieces for chances to come, which is not a bad thing at all as for a long time I thought it was impossible to beat the first man watching Sunderland, but it has become something we are maybe over reliant on due to the lack of anything out wide. To put it into perspective, Sunderland have nine goal contributions from defenders this season (4G,5A) with our wingers contributing to just six (4G,2A) and one of those is an Adingra assist that took a deflection to even get to the player that scored.

Quite simply, those numbers are not good enough. I know that expectations are to stay up, and I would like to think that aim will be comfortably reached, but I do not feel that means we can just accept the mediocrity that we are seeing on both sides currently. Bertrand Traore has arguably looked the liveliest and most up to par but sadly AFCON and an injury has seen him absent since the derby. Both Mundle and Eliezer Mayenda (who I see as more of a striker) have operated out wide frequently since AFCON. I think they need loans because they do not seem quite at the standard yet but clearly have the potential to play at this level.

That leaves me with Simon Adingra and Chemsdine Talbi. The latter has the most goal contributions of any of our wingers, with that famous winner at Stamford Bridge and then his deflected effort against Liverpool. Despite that, I do question if he is ready to play week-in week-out having the responsibility of being our starting winger at his age as ultimately, he is young and learning to play in a new difficult league and can be pretty frustrating. Adingra has been a bit of a disappointment so far after spending just under £20 million on him. A couple of years ago the Ivorian won player of the tournament at AFCON so there is absolutely talent in there but whether it be confidence or the way we play, it just is not working at the minute. The game against Leeds was comfortably his best game and if we can get him at that level every week then you have a top talent - the issue is he has played 14 games now and that Leeds game is his only stand-out currently.

All of our wingers show glimpses but in the Premier League that just is not what we need from starters. I do understand it is not an easy market for that position. Even Manchester City have a hot and cold winger in Jeremy Doku.

I just feel the complete lack of creativity out wide is making us far too one-dimensional and easy to defend against. We are in a great position and punching well above our weight but at the same time, when it feels we are missing that one piece to be a really solid outfit, it is a bit frustrating that we may just settle with what we have got left with not many days left in the January window.