Tony Mowbray admits Sunderland 'trying everything' to conjure a goal threat after Jack Clarke's positional switch paid dividends at Swansea. With Ross Stewart and Ellis Simms still sidelined through injury, Mowbray is having to find alternative sources of goals.
At Swansea, The Black Cats began with Alex Pritchard and Elliot Embleton playing up front but that duo made no impression in the first half, and the Swans led 2-0 at the break. But in the second half Mowbray moved Clarke from the left flank to a central role and that made an immediate difference, with the 21-year-old scoring soon after the restart to give his side a route back into the match, although they ultimately could not force an equaliser.
"We're trying everything at the moment at the top end of the pitch," said Mowbray. "Clarke has got genuine pace and a little bit more physicality.
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"We started with Pritchard and Embleton who are really technicians who are trying to draw them out and try to play and in certain games - like Reading away - it works brilliantly, and they slip the wide players in as they dive and we score. Yet every team has facilities to watch how you play.
"We needed to stop their middle centre-half coming out today and the two number tens didn't really work for us, so we decided to put somebody up against him and occupy him. We needed to be able to run away from people, and Jack was the obvious choice because of the attributes and the physical attributes he has got."
Stewart's thigh injury is expected to keep him out until after the World Cup break, and there appears to be no prospect of an imminent return for toe injury victim Simms either with Mowbray planning for next weekend's home game Wigan Athletic without the on-loan Everton man. Mowbray said: "We have to accept that with no centre-forwards, no targetmen, it's difficult because every goalkick is difficult if teams are really pressing in against us.
It's a difficult challenge to know that the ball is going to get headed back into your half [if goalkicks are played long], so you have to start off inside your own box and try to build, or you're going to have to [play it long and] try and win a second ball."
Sunderland will go into the Wigan game without skipper Corry Evans after he picked up his fifth yellow card of the season in the defeat at Swansea, which means he must serve a one-match suspension. But there was a boost for the Black Cats with defender Dennis Cirkin back in the squad for the first time in a month now he has recovered from a hamstring problem, although he was an unused sub against the Swans.
"We'll be Corry down, Cirkin was on the bench, so we'll have to see what we feel is the best way to go against Wigan," said Mowbray. "I haven't started looking at that yet."
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