Journalist Josh Bunting has been left baffled by the ‘strange’ display of Sunderland striker Ellis Simms during a recent league match.
While the World Cup is now going on and heading into the latter stages of the competition, some clubs in England have already seen the return of domestic football.
Indeed, Sunderland were back in Championship action over the weekend and managed to pick up an impressive 3-0 win over Millwall which lifts the Black Cats up into the top ten.
Goals from Amad Diallo, Alex Pritchard and Simms were more than enough to seal all three points but they all came in the second 45 after a first half which was described as ‘insipid’ by BBC Sport.
It seems as though the Sunderland striker was guilty of playing a role in that poor first period before he and his team sparked into life later on in the game.
Indeed, Bunting seemed to think as much and made his feelings known on Twitter. He wrote: “Ellis Simms I felt put in a strange performance.
“First half didn’t do much at all even in terms of holding it up he didn’t do enough but second [half] his link-up and touch was much better.
“The second-half performance is why he is so critical to the way that Sunderland play.”
Do you think Ellis Simms played well?
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TIF thoughts on Ellis Simms and Sunderland…
Regardless of what happened in the first half, Simms did end the game on the winning side having scored and provided an assist for Sunderland. So it’s safe to say he turned things around.
Even so, according to SofaScore, the fact that he lost the ball 11 times, missed one big chance and had a fairly poor passing accuracy percentage of just 70 per cent, does show that there was a certain amount of inconsistency to his display.
Still, that won’t matter too much so long as he can keep scoring and setting up goals while the Black Cats pick up impressive wins in the Championship. And with five goals and two assists to his name in the league, Simms is certainly making a positive impact.