Frankie Francis and Danny Collins were joined by Sunderland midfielder Max Power on the latest edition of the SAFC Unfiltered podcast and the Black Cats player spent some time talking about his teammate Will Grigg during the show.
Grigg joined Sunderland back in January 2019 for a transfer fee of £3.06m from Wigan Athletic.
It may be fair to say that the 29-year-old striker has not exactly set the world alight since moving to the Stadium of Light, as he has scored just eight goals and provided just three assists in his 49 appearances for the North East club thus far.
The £1.08m-rated former Northern Ireland international managed to hit the back of the net on just one occasion in 20 League One appearances for Sunderland during the 2019/20 campaign.
However, despite his poor record in front of goal since joining Sunderland, Power was full of praise for the forward during his recent appearance on the SAFC Unfiltered podcast.
Here is what the midfielder had to say about Grigg: “I think if you watch Will Grigg, he can look as if he’s not doing too much and that’s a bit unfair, because if you watch his movement, he’s very clever. He’s always on the shoulder, always looking to make runs in behind.
“We’ve probably been guilty of not creating [those] opportunities enough for him.
“Griggy’s the best first-time finisher I’ve played with. If you can get him in [those] positions, more often than not, he will score. So that’s something we need to improve on because if we can do that, he’ll score 20 goals.”
The midfielder later went on to say: “He looks his old self, he looks like he’s got a spring back in his step, and that can only be good for us. People, I’d say, would have written Griggy off, whereas now, he looks like a new signing.”
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So, judging by these comments, it certainly seems as though Power has got a lot of confidence in Grigg’s ability and believes that if the Black Cats can create the right opportunities for the Northern Irishman, he will score plenty of goals.
While he hasn’t been very prolific at the Stadium of Light, Grigg has proven that he’s got the ability to score goals at League One level during his career, as he’s netted on 19 or more occasions in League One, in four separate seasons.
Grigg was also named in the PFA League One Team of the Year for both the 2015/16 campaign and the 2017/18 campaign.
With that in mind, perhaps Power is right to have faith in Grigg and it will be interesting to see if the Black Cats do manage to get the best out of the forward during the 2020/21 campaign.