David Jones shares Sunderland striker verdict ahead of January window
David Jones has suggested that Sunderland should be in the market for another striker once the transfer window opens on 1 January.
The Sky Sports host and non-executive director of the Black Cats has revealed that he keeps reminding Kristjaan Speakman and Kyril Louis-Dreyfus that Ipswich had plenty of strikers last season.
Sunderland currently have Wilson Isidor as their main man, with Aaron Connolly, Eliezer Mayenda and Nazariy Rusyn as rotation options for Regis Le Bris.
Speaking on the Not The Top 20 podcast (3 December), Jones said: “I keep reminding Kristjaan (Speakman) and Kyril (Louis-Dreyfus) that Ipswich Town, I mean, how many strikers did they have last season in their promotion season?
“Off the top of my head, I want to say at least four maybe – maybe more than that – but they were able to rotate and you’d often see them get to 70 minutes and throw on and change their entire front line.
“Quite often they would be scoring goals in the 90+ minute as a result of that. So I don’t think you can ever have too many would be my view, but then I’m not the one who has to answer to the budgets at the end of the day.”
Sunderland need attacking quality in January
Isidor has been an excellent pick-up since arriving on a season-long loan from Zenit, but Sunderland simply cannot afford to hold their hopes on one player to score the goals.
The attacking options need to contribute more. Patrick Roberts endured another goalless performance against Sheffield United which makes it nearly 19 months since he last scored a goal from open play.
An injury to Romaine Mundle has halted the progress he had made after an impressive start to the campaign with Tommy Watson impressing in his absence but yet to contribute with numbers.
While you could argue a striker isn’t of importance in January, attacking depth and quality as a whole certainly is and failure to address that could be pivotal to their promotion hopes.
The Black Cats may have to spend more than initially planned in January but if they do, the potential rewards for doing so massively outweigh the negatives brought by the risks of failing to strengthen.
In other Sunderland news, Eleanor Dale has shown her worth to the Black Cats Women’s side.
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