Seven surprising Sunderland stats - both good and bad

Just how bad are Sunderland at set-pieces? Who is the club's most prolific tackler? Surprises guaranteed.

Sunderland stats seldom come as a surprise to us fans considering how closely we follow the club nowadays.

Whether we are there in person or watching on a screen, we all pretty much see every minute of every Sunderland match.

There are, though, still room for a few surprises in the statistics. Here are seven of our favourites after the first 21 games of the season.

Barely win corners, never mind score from them

Sunderland have done many things well this season, but set pieces is not one of them. In fact, we are approaching the middle of December and we’re still awaiting our first set piece goal.

When it comes to corners, though, Sunderland don’t really get many. That was a little surprising considering the quality of wingers in the squad, but there we go. Sunderland have actually given away nearly twice as many corners (112) as they have been awarded themselves (62).

The bad Alex Pritchard bit

If Sunderland are guilty of wasting corners this season, then Alex Pritchard is the chief culprit. He has taken 43 of the 62 corners Sunderland have won, which comes out at around 70% of them.

You don’t want to criticise Pritchard too much, though, because he offers so much more. Plus, with his height, you aren’t exactly going to want him in the box, are you.

For those wondering, the other Sunderland players to take corners this season are Elliot Embleton (7), Patrick Roberts (7) Jack Clarke (4) and Lynden Gooch (1).

Free kick attempts

If you’re feeling generous, you can give Sunderland a bit of a pass when it comes to not scoring from corners this season. We clearly don’t win many, comparatively speaking, and we are not the biggest team.

What we do have, though, is an awful lot of good technicians, so you’d think we’d occasionally score a free kick or two, right?

Well, Sunderland have had by far the most shots from free kicks in the Championship this season (17), so we certainly can’t find any excuses there for not scoring any. The closest team is Burnley, who have had 12. Dismal.

Surprisingly bookable

If you asked Sunderland fans to say what they thought the side was lacking, I’d wager many would say that the squad is not nasty enough. Well, according to the referees, Sunderland are the nastiest team in the whole Championship.

Sunderland players have been shown 55 yellow cards this season, five more than the next booked team (Middlesbrough). Remarkable.

Mind, it probably reflects poorer on the standard of refereeing than it does Sunderland.

The good Alex Pritchard bit

I think it’s fairly common knowledge that Jack Clarke has the most Sunderland assists this season as things stands. The former Leeds man has six of them in total, which is very respectable.

That can be a misleading metric, though. For example, against Millwall Alex Pritchard did all the hard work for the first goal yet Ellis Simms was credited with the assist.

However, if you expand assists to included secondary assists – that is the last two offensive actions leading directly to a goal rather than just the one - Pritchard’s importance becomes much clearer. Using that metric, Pritchard actually has more assists (9) than Clarke (7).

Most prolific tackler

This one should be easy to guess, right? Danny Batth? Luke O’Nien? Corry Evans? Dennis Cirkin? Nope, you’re all wrong. It’s actually… Dan Neil? Wait, really?

Yes, really. Mad as is sounds, no Sunderland player has won more tackles this season than Dan Neil. He has dispossessed an opponent 27 times so far, three more than Corry Evans.

Before you get too excited, though, it’s also worth noting that Dan Neil has been dribbled past more times (19) than any other player too. It may be that opposition managers believe Neil to be the defensive weak link in the Sunderland midfield and are targeting him.

Still, he wins the ball in those situations more often than not, so fair play to him.

Brilliant at blocking shots

One thing that no one can criticise Sunderland for this season is a lack of commitment to the cause. In fact, it’s one of the things that has helped to really reconnect the club with the fans in the last 12 months.

It was still surprising, though, to learn that Sunderland have actually blocked more shots on goal than any other club in the Championship.

Indeed, Sunderland have blocked 94 shots in their 21 games this season, three more than Blackpool, Preston and Rotherham.

As a point of interest, Sunderland’s next opponents WBA have blocked the fewest amount of shots in the Championship this season (49). They have also blocked a league-worst 16 crosses compared to Sunderland’s 33, which is about average. 

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