Rory Fallow and Matthew Keeling reacted to Sunderland’s 2-1 loss to MK Dons this past weekend on the latest edition of the Wise Men Say podcast and spent some time talking about striker Will Grigg during the show.
Grigg started this game and remained on the pitch until the 72nd minute. According to WhoScored, the 29-year-old earned the second-lowest rating (6.05/10) of any of the Black Cats’ outfield players in Saturday’s loss.
The £1.08m-rated centre-forward took two shots in this game, hitting the target with just one. However, it may be fair to say that his shot that missed the target was a gilt-edged opportunity, as it was taken from very close range, with BBC Sport describing his miss as a ‘wasted’ opportunity for the North East club.
Keeling slated Grigg for his close-range miss during this recent edition of the Wise Men Say podcast, saying:
“That miss, for me, is the end for him. I’ve defended him to an extent, because I think part of it is because you’ve seen what he’s done before but he can’t be missing chances like that.
“That’s just rotten. There’s no excuse for missing that. It’s not particularly quick at him, it’s literally a yard out or two yards – it’s pathetic. He’s missed by miles.”
Should Grigg play more often for Sunderland?
YES
NO
TIF Thoughts on what Keeling had to say about Grigg’s close-range miss versus MK Dons…
Grigg’s overall WhoScored rating for this game suggests that he didn’t produce a very positive performance versus MK Dons and given that the Black Cats lost this game by just one goal, it may be understandable why Keeling was so critical of the 29-year-old for his close-range miss.
The Northern Irishman is yet to score his first goal of the 2020/21 League One season and at present, he has earned the fourth-lowest overall WhoScored rating (6.16) in the league of any Black Cats player for the current campaign, so it seems as though his uninspiring performance this past weekend was not a one-off and that may also explain why Keeling opted not to defend the Sunderland striker during this podcast.
Grigg has played the fourth-lowest number of league minutes (184) of any Sunderland player this season. Given that according to Transfermarkt, Sunderland have got three other out-and-out centre-forward options as well as three other attackers who can play in this position and knowing that Grigg has endured a poor start to the season, perhaps he isn’t making a great argument for himself to get more game time.