Sunderland manager Tony Mowbray has claimed that the Black Cats will not drop Leeds United loanee Joe Gelhardt over his poor run of form at the Stadium of Light, as he admitted that the forward's "confidence is pretty low at the moment".
Gelhardt has not had the easiest of times during his loan spell at Sunderland. A day after signing for the Championship side, the 20-year-old would have the rest of the season flipped upside down following a campaign-ending injury to the Black Cats' top scorer Ross Stewart.
The Leeds man now finds himself as the club's only recognised striker and faces the weight of leading the line for Mowbray's side in their play-off push resting squarely on his shoulders. Gelhardt's only goal on Wearside so far has come in a 2-1 defeat to Rotherham United as he still looks to click into gear and settle into life in the north east.
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Despite his on-field struggles, Mowbray has now revealed that he will keep Gelhardt in his starting XI regardless of his poor form, as he detailed the dramatic change in role the forward has had to get to grips with following the injury to Stewart.
"When I first met him [Gelhardt] I talked about what his preferred role was," Mowbray said, as per The Northern Echo. "We talked about him as a nine-and-a-half really, which means he's happy to play 10, he's happy to play wide, he's happy to play down the middle. And yet it wasn't the intention to put such a young guy as the main man down the middle.
"The plan was to play off a centre-forward really because I feel when I watched his best clips at Leeds when he's been on the pitch playing in the Premier League, he sort of buzzes around the main guy and dives into little spaces.
"And yet at the moment he's the main focal point rather than the guy who the defenders aren't marking. In an ideal world, the main guy moves them [the defenders] out the way and Joe dives in and buries it in the bottom corner. At the moment he's the main focus of the defenders and it's a different role for him.
"In these next 11 games I said to him he has to try and stay robust and fit and strong and try and rebuild some confidence, because I do think his confidence is pretty low at the moment," the Sunderland boss added.
"But he'll be given opportunities. I don't sit here at this moment and think I'll put him on the bench and protect him a little bit and see if he can come off the bench and liven the game up. The burden on him is he has to generally start because he's the only striker we have who is close to being a nine."
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