Frankie Francis and Danny Collins were joined by Sunderland winger Lynden Gooch on the latest edition of the SAFC Unfiltered podcast and Gooch spent some time talking about his Black Cats teammate Charlie Wyke during the show.
Gooch and Wyke have been two of Sunderland’s most heavily-used players this term, as both players have featured in all 10 of the North East club’s League One games so far this season.
During his recent appearance on the SAFC Unfiltered podcast, Gooch suggested that he is happy to have shared the pitch with Wyke so much this season, as he was full of praise for his 27-year-old teammate, saying:
“You know going into the game he’s going to batter the other team’s centre-halves. You know he will. He’s so strong, so big.
“I think his work rate gets taken for granted as a big striker like that, he’s nearly running 11km – that’s a lot for a centre-forward.
“I think he’s doing brilliant. His hold-up play has been really good, but I think a player like him, he needs that service, he [did] it at Bradford, scored over 20 goals there; when you get good balls in the box and good balls into him, he will score because he’s done it.”
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TIF Thoughts on what Gooch had to say about Wyke…
The season before he joined Sunderland in the summer of 2018, Wyke scored 15 goals in 40 League One appearances for Bradford City. Since moving to The Stadium of Light, however, Wyke has failed to put up similar numbers.
The centre-forward scored four goals in England’s third tier in his first season at the North East club, while he scored five league goals last season.
However, the £270k-rated attacker is on course to enjoy his best season in front of goal since joining the Black Cats this term, as he has already scored four goals in just 10 League One appearances so far this season, which makes him the top league goalscorer for Phil Parkinson’s side at this stage of the campaign.
Given how well he performed in England’s third tier for Bradford the season before he joined Sunderland and knowing that he has enjoyed a positive start to the 2020/21 campaign, we feel it’s understandable why Gooch shared so much confidence in Wyke’s ability in front of goal during this recent edition of the SAFC Unfiltered podcast and hopefully, for the North East club, the 27-year-old repays that confidence with even more goals as the season progresses to help Sunderland with their promotion bid this term.