The boss of the Black Cats needs to make this key decision now than later says Fabrizio Romano
The Black Cats picked up their first points since the start of September, on Saturday, with a win over Norwich City. The Canaries have been in even worse form. By the time they play their next game, on 5th November, they will have managed just one point in the last two calendar month.
One surprise heading into the game was Sunderland’s striker. Manager Tony Mowbray had seemingly made things pretty clear that on-loan Chelsea striker Mason Burstow was his preferred number nine because of his EFL experience and off-ball work rate. But the former Charlton Athletic striker ended up being an unused sub on Saturday.
Instead, it was Ukranian striker Nazariy Rusyn who was given the task of leading the line at the Stadium of Light. It was the 24-year-old’s first league start for Sunderland, and he impressed.
Although Rusyn didn’t break the run of Sunderland strikers not scoring, this season, he was involved in some decent chance creation in his 70 minutes on the pitch, playing one key pass and having a combined expected goals and assists of 0.22.
