Ahead of the Fulham game the gaffer has to find a way to win without a striker, similarly to the situation he was in not long after joining Sunderland. One thing for sure is that he won’t be playing O’Nien up top as much as Luke would love to.
NEED A REACTION
"We're in this situation, at this stage of the season. I haven't been here two or three years so I need to see how this team reacts. The positive of me sitting here and telling you how young the team is - I read the stat that the average age of the starting XI at Millwall was 22.5 - is that all the players should be fit and powerful and able to run.”
NO TIRED OLD LEGS
“I shouldn't be having to worry too much about tired old legs. We'll have to make some decisions in terms of the selection of the team, with half an eye on a league match against Reading at home this weekend that we have to try and target to get the three points. It's just about getting the balance - how much can you go to the well with the same group of players every match? We're in a period now where we potentially have a midweek game every week this month, with a squad where we will have a 15-year-old on the bench again and maybe a couple of 17-year-olds as well.”
BUSY SCHEDULE
"It's stretching our squad, with the injuries we've got and some players who aren't eligible tomorrow night. We're a bit short for this game but it's a great opportunity for some of these youngsters to feel the atmosphere and show what we can do."
09 UP TOP???
"He keeps asking me whether I've looked at his No.9 clips and telling me he'll score 15 a season. He's not short of confidence. It's not something I'm thinking about, but the way he plays and trains and lives his life, it wouldn't surprise me if he could do a job."
DÉJÀ VU
“Obviously Gelhardt can't play. We have to find a way, as we did for three months when I first arrived. We'll hopefully have an attacking force on the pitch where when we have the ball we ask questions of them and try threaten their goal. It's less easy without a noted centre forward who likes to play down the middle, but we will hopefully ask enough questions where we can threaten their goal and see whether we can win the game.”
ADAPT
"We've had a discussion on the training ground about how we have to be able to threaten them. We have to have players who will run behind their backline. When it isn't the natural game for the players, you have to train their brain to threaten the space behind. We have the players in the squad that if they know their job they hopefully adapt their individual attributes. We need people to run in behind and find the space behind if we're going to stretch Fulham and find the space for our technical players to play in. We've done the work on it, let's see if we can bring it to a matchday and try to find a performance similar to the first game.”
DECISIONS TO BE MADE
"I'm not sure Pritch is ready to be thrown in and play as a false nine or No.10. We have to look at the players we've got. Whether we play Amad a bit higher up the pitch...we'll see. I don't want to sit here and tell Fulham what our team is going to be. We'll have a team that hopefully is very competitive and the fans who come to watch will see a Sunderland team fighting for every ball. The opposition are a very talented group of individuals and are sitting sixth in the Premier League. It won't be gung-ho but we will be brave."
