History shows just how big a task is facing the successor to little Lee Johnson if they are to salvage Sunderland’s hopes of automatic promotion.
For no club in League One in the last 10 years has finished in the top two while conceding as many goals as the Black Cats are shipping this season.
We’ve crunched a decade’s worth of stats to ask whether Sunderland can sustain a promotion push – avoiding the play-offs – amid the defensive struggles which resulted in Saturday’s 6-0 hammering at Bolton, and Johnson’s departure.
