Following the summer transfer window, Niall Huggins makes a bold assumption about Sunderland’s attacking threat.
Sunderland allowed top scorer Ross Stewart leave on transfer deadline day, but bought four new forwards in the summer.
Sunderland have a better goal threat this season than last, according to Niall Huggins, despite the deadline-day departure of star scorer Ross Stewart. Stewart scored 26 goals the previous season to help the Black Cats finish fifth in League One and gain promotion via the play-offs, and he scored 10 goals in 13 games to help them finish sixth in the Championship despite missing nearly three quarters of the season due to injury.
He has since joined Championship rivals Southampton at the start of the month, but defender Huggins believes Sunderland’s attacking reinforcements brought in over the summer have made them a greater threat. The Black Cats have completed permanent signings for Luis Hemir, Nazariy Rusyn, and Eliezer Mayenda, while Chelsea’s Mason Burstow has joined on a season-long loan.
“I feel like last season we were brilliant and finished high up the table, even though Ross was out and we didn’t have that main threat,” said Huggins. “With the addition of players, we now have more of a threat up top.”
“It’s just working the players in and getting them used to playing, it just adds another dynamic to our team that I think we’ll start to unlock even more as the weeks go on.”
Sunderland’s Burstow has started the last three games, while Portuguese Hemir has started one and made a half-dozen substitute appearances. Rusyn, the club’s most recent Ukrainian signing, made his debut as a substitute against Cardiff City on Sunday, while Spaniard Mayenda is yet to play after suffering a hamstring injury nearly immediately after joining, although he is now close to full fitness.
Sunderland’s strikers have yet to score, but they remain the division’s fourth-highest scorers with 15 goals in their first eight games, with winger Jack Clarke scoring five times, midfielders Jobe Bellingham, Dan Neil, and Pierre Ekwah scoring two each, and Bradley Dack, Abdoullah Ba, Chris Rigg, and Dan Ballard scoring one each. Sunderland’s five-game unbeaten run came to an end on Sunday when they were defeated 1-0 at home by Cardiff City, and their season continues on Friday evening when Tony Mowbray’s side travel to Hillsborough to face bottom-of-the-table Sheffield Wednesday, who have yet to win since winning promotion.
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