Sunderland face a struggling Stoke side today, but who are some of their players you should keep an eye out for during the game?
LYNDEN GOOCH
Gooch is somewhat of a doubt for today's game, which is probably a good thing owing to how good he can be on his day (as we are all aware) and the record ex-Sunderland players have against us in terms of being able to find the net. Of course, aside from a couple of brief loan spells with Gateshead and Doncaster, before September he had spent his entire senior career (and the vast majority of his junior career) on Wearside playing 247 games for Sunderland. He's had an injury setback at Stoke, but he remains a possibility for selection tomorrow as the left back looks to add to his seven appearances for his new side so far as well as to notch his first goal contribution to help them climb up the table. Him having only recently departed Sunderland will certainly make a valuable asset to Stoke today as he'll know many of our players inside and out and being under Alex Neil may help Lynden to flourish (that is unless Neil is sacked if we beat them today).
ANDRE VIDIGAL
Stoke's top scorer so far this campaign is Portuguese left-winger Vidigal, with five goals in six games. This is the 25 year old's first time playing in English football, with previous spells in Portugal, the Netherlands and Cyprus. In terms of trophies his best time was with APOEL Nicosia, where he helped the side to become champions of Cyprus and win the Cypriot Super Cup. He also has previous experience with promotion, being apart of the Estoril team who won the Liga Portugal 2. Still quite young, clearly very talented and also clearly not having been slowed down by having to adjust to the style of play in England, he definetly will cause Sunderland some problems today but we should be able to contain him hopefully.
MARK TRAVERS
Stoke City's number one in between the sticks is Irish international Mark Travers, who has played in all 11 of their Championship games this season. Travers is actually on loan from Premier League Bournemouth, the goalkeeper having spent his entire senior career with the Cherries following his move there after spells with a few Irish teams in his youth days. The 24 year old has had loan spells with Weymouth and Swindon before this but his most succesful season was with Bournemouth. Back in 2021-22, Travers and Bournemouth were automatically promoted to the top flight and the then youngster won the Championship Golden Glove award and was named Bournemouth Player of the Year. Since that season, he's struggled for game time and this is clearly a move to try and revitalise his career. He has struggled though along with his teammates, with just one clean sheet from his 12 appearances. Of course he's clearly a talented goalkeeper at this level so he's more than capable of causing our attack some problems on his day.
KI-JANA HOEVER
Next up his Dutch U21 international Ki-Jana Hoever, who is currently Stoke's joint top assister this campaign with two. After moving from his native Netherlands to Liverpool, he made a few scattered appearances for the giants before transferring to Wolves. The youngster made no appearances for Wolverhampton last season and as such was loaned out to PSV. Although he also found game time there hard to come by, at least he came away with a John Cruyff Shield win on his CV however. Because of this he was loaned out to Stoke in January and Hoever finally found consistent game time and clearly this is a good environment for the 21 year old because he's once again been loaned out to Alex Neil's side for this season. He is a wing back who favours the right hand side (but can also play on the left) and Ki-Jana is definetely one of Stoke's better players.
CIARAN CLARK
Another Irish international on this list, this time it's experienced centre-back Ciaran Clark. He has earned 36 caps during his career and has previosuly made over 100 appearances for Aston Villa and Newcastle respectively, at the latter club he won the Championship in 2017 and was named Newcastle Player of the Year. Most recently he had a loan spell at Sheffield United, where he helped the Blades to automatic promotion. Clark his Stoke City's most recent addition, being signed just 11 days ago owing to the fact he was a free agent after being released by Newcastle. The defender is unlikely to start and the only reason he is being mentioned is because it would be typical if an unfit ex-mag defender was to score against us. Looking beyond our game today, Clark looks to be a solid signing with plenty of Championship experience and promotion pedigree behind him already.
