Sunderland manager Tony Mowbray has told Joe Gelhardt to look at how Aleksandar Mitrovic plays as a striker and to "be like that", as the Leeds United loanee looks for his first Black Cats goal.
Gelhardt is spending the remainder of this campaign at the Stadium of Light leading the line for Sunderland. The 20-year-old is the club's only recognised centre-forward following an injury to top scorer Ross Stewart, and Mowbray is looking for the youngster to step up and spearhead their attack.
Sunderland sit 7th in the Championship, but should they win their game in hand on Watford above them, they will find themselves in the play-off places. Gelhardt will undoubtedly have a vital role to play in their charge and Mowbray has called on the Leeds star to add more to his game than simply looking for balls in behind the defence as the striker searches for his first goal for the club.
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“I think you have to adapt your game really,” he told the Sunderland Echo. “As when we’ve played with no strikers you have to make sure that when the ball is coming in the box that people are in the box, whether it be the opposite wide man getting in, whether it’s No 10s. With Joe I have no issues with him coming deep, linking and joining.
“You saw Mitrovic was like a masterclass of doing it twice against us in recent weeks, how deep he comes to join in with their build-up and yet always arrives in the box at the right time. He either jogs in there because the build-up is slow down the wing and he arrives as the cross comes in, or he’s bursting a lung to get in there because they are fast down the byline and are looking for a cutback.
“I think Joe has got to be like that really, part of the build-up, get involved in the game, can’t just always think you are going to sit on the shoulder and run in behind.
“He’s very technical and he won’t lose the ball for us, even in tight areas he’s a good footballer, but he has to be in the box when the ball arrives, as does Roberts, as does [Jack] Clarke, Amad or [Alex] Pritchard. They have to get in the box to score goals for us as well.”
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