Tony Mowbray says Sunderland's lack of strikers left him feeling he was sending his team into battle 'without the tools to win' as they were beaten at Coventry City. Ross Stewart's season-ending Achilles injury has left the Black Cats boss with on-loan Leeds United frontman Joe Gelhardt as his only out-and-out striker, and while he is clearly a real talent the 20-year-old is still learning on the job as this is the first time he has been asked to make regular senior starts.
Sunderland lost 2-1 at Coventry, and the man of the match performance of Sky Blues striker Viktor Gyokeres - who scored his side's second goal - underlined Mowbray's point. After the game, Mowbray said if Sunderland had had the Swede in their side, or had Stewart been fit to play, he felt the Black Cats would have won.
"I don't know what the opinion of Coventry fans would be of us, but I would think they thought were an alright football team," said Mowbray, who spent 18 months in charge of Coventry before departing in September 2016. "If we had had Viktor Gyokores in our team, we would have won comfortably today, I think.
READ MORE: Amad and Dan Neil impress despite Sunderland's defeat at Coventry City
"That's not knocking Joffy [Gelhardt], who is a boy, but just the power and size of [Gyokeres]. Put Ross Stewart in today, and I think we would have won the football match.
"We needed men in the box to help young Joffy, who is only 20 years old and has never played games consistently in his life because he has been in the Premier League and has been a sub lots of times. It's the first time he has ever been asked to start football matches, and it is a big ask for him.
"I feel a little bit as if we go into the games without the tools to win the football match, really, as we have done for most of the season because we have been without Ross Stewart and Ellis Simms [who was recalled from his loan spell on Wearside in January]. But you have to try and find a way, instead of using it as an excuse.
"You have to get men in the box, you have to get the opposite side winger in the box, you have to get the number ten in the box, you have to try and get one of your midfield players in the box, and find a way to score. Generally we had a lot of control in the game and, a bit like on Tuesday night [when Sunderland lost at Rotherham], we found a way to lose a game that we shouldn't have lost.
"We miss a physical threat in the middle of the goal, where players are confident enough to put the ball in the box. It's difficult for Joffy because he is a boy really and he can get lost amongst three big centre-halves.
"It's something we have to keep working on. I don't sit here and think 'where are we going with this team because we are struggling'. We know we are a bit light and we know that the transfer window wasn't the one we wanted at the end, with the injury to Ross skewing that.
"I just feel we are probably a couple of strikers away from being a really good team."
Danny Batth headed against the bar early on before Jamie Allen gave Coventry the lead just after the midway point in the first half, with Gyokeres adding the second in the 89th minute. Amad scored a brilliant goal in injury-time to give Sunderland late hope, but they ran out of time to force an equaliser.
Mowbray said: "I think there were plenty of positives from us, but you have to put the ball in the opposition net. The negative was that we probably weren't positive enough around their box, because we were in those positions enough.
"We came up against a team that plays transition football and they have one of the best strikers [Gyokeres] in the league, and you could feel his threat on the transition."
READ NEXT:
Sunderland slip to second away defeat in a week as Coventry City punish their mistakes
- Sunderland boss Tony Mowbray hails Mark Robins rebuild at Coventry City in tough circumstances
- Tony Mowbray hoping Ross Stewart will follow Corry Evans and commit his future to Sunderland
- Joe Gelhardt relishing the chance to be a regular starter again at Sunderland
- Tony Mowbray wary of asking too much of Amad - but his talent makes him hard to leave out
