EXCLUSIVE: Former Sunderland man blasts Black Cats strikers for ‘making it too easy’ for defenders

Sunderland have an obvious striker problem, and one former Black Cats centre forward thinks both the players and club have to share the blame.

Former Sunderland striker Brian Deane has criticised the Black Cats’ current crop of centre forwards for ‘making it too easy for defenders.’

A lack of strikers at Sunderland has been a constant issue ever since Ross Stewart got injured back in September 2023, and the club’s four current centre forwards have contributed just three goals between them all season.

That lack of cutting edge has essentially ejected Sunderland from the promotion race this season, and Deane – who won a Championship title with the Black Cats in a short spell in 2005 – says both the strikers themselves and the club have to take responsibility for it.

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Speaking to Sunderland Nation via 1337 Games Deane said: “I saw Sunderland playing Rotherham last year and there was such a lack of a focal point and it was a problem, because it was an easy game at the back for Rotherham – so it’s not just this season.

“It’s really funny because when I was doing my pro license, we were doing a lot of work on stats around this, and how something that’s not in fashion comes back into fashion again.

“Someone like myself, I have the look of an old-fashioned centre forward. When Erling Haaland came to Man City, nobody knew how to deal with him, and it’s the subtleties of having the pace and movement as a no.9.

“The Premier League has lost the great defenders of the past, and Haaland has exploited that.

“In the Championship, take a look at Ipswich – they’ve bought in Keiffer Moore, and all of a sudden they’re level has raised again. You can attribute that to the fact that he’s a proper old school centre forward that all of the team look to and think they have that presence up front now.

“We’ve gone away from the old-fashioned centre forward to having three forwards, but you do need that focal point in a team, especially when the games come thick and fast in the Championship, and they are physical games.

“Having a lightweight front three doesn’t cut it. I think that things are quite simple, and we are trying to complicate it.

“Nobody wants to have a big centre forward and play it long, moaning that it’s just rubbish, but we should talk about winning games not the style of play. That seems to be the thing that people are forgetting.”

Sunderland have had some great centre forwards over the years, and Brian Deane himself was a useful one even though he only joined the club at the very back end of his career.

It is another former Sunderland striker, though, Kenwyne Jones, who Deane thinks is the kind of player the Black Cats need before they can even think about getting promoted – mainly because they threaten in behind as well as in the air.

Brian Deane briefly called in at Sunderland before calling time on his career. In 2005, he became their oldest debutant at 37 years and 58 days when he came on against Reading. pic.twitter.com/w8OybXxKQ9

— Footballers (@unusualclubs) May 12, 2018

“When you talk about a target man, the first thing that comes to people’s mind is someone that can hold up the ball.

“You could look at Jones, myself, Cavani, Haaland – we could hold it up, but we were all quick and wanted to play in behind and that is what causes defenders problems, as they don’t want to be going back towards their own goal.

“It’s about having that physical presence where you can mix it up, and I think that a lot of clubs are missing that trick now.

“Why don’t we understand the art of that kind of player? There’s so much to be gained by having that sort of player in your squad who is mobile as well as a physical presence.

“That’s the player that is going to get Sunderland out of the Championship.”