Sunderland: Phil Smith has bemoaned the lack of quality in the final third

Journalist Phil Smith has insisted on The Roar podcast that Sunderland’s lack of options at striker and their problems at the back are major issues for the club amid their disappointing recent form.

When Tony Mowbray was appointed as Sunderland manager, he would have been delighted to be working with two strikers of Ross Stewart and Ellis Simms’ quality, only for them both to pick up significant knocks.

The latter is now at least back out on the grass and stepping up his recovery, but Smith believes Stewart won’t be seen before the World Cup, leaving Mowbray with a big problem at centre-forward for the Black Cats ahead of the coming weeks as they look to put an end to their four-game winless run.

Smith has bemoaned Sunderland’s lack of depth at striker – but also believes it isn’t the only thing hampering the side.

He said: “It’s not just all about the strikers and I certainly wouldn’t present it as that, but I think that’s where the frustration comes from – is that we’re not seeing a team that you think they’ve been shown not to be good enough against their opposition.

“There is one major specific issue that’s having a kind of undue bearing on the games, I think, at the moment in both boxes – and that’s quite difficult to take.”

TIF Thoughts on Sunderland’s major issues…

While Smith clearly doesn’t want to pin all of the blame for their recent struggles on Sunderland’s lack of depth at striker and the injuries to Stewart and Simms, with the team scoring just one goal in three games, it does appear to be the glaringly obvious issue at present.

Smith insisted that the problem is in both boxes for Sunderland, however, they have claimed two clean sheets in their last three league games, which would suggest that the Black Cats’ backline is doing its job, and it’s the attacking players – or lack of them – who are hampering their progress.

Mowbray will be hoping for some unlikely inspiration this weekend from players such as Amad Diallo and Alex Pritchard, who have been tasked with playing through the middle recently as he has no other experienced options in the striker role.