Kevin Phillips has ‘one slight criticism’ about Sunderland despite impressive return to Premier League
Kevin Phillips believes the only criticism he can level at Sunderland this season is a lack of goals.
The Black Cats sit ninth in the Premier League table having amassed an impressive 36 points through 25 top-flight games this season, and are still in the hunt for European football.
However, no team in the top 10 has managed fewer than Sunderland’s 27 goals this campaign, while only Crystal Palace, Nottingham Forest, Burnley and Wolves have a lower tally in the bottom half.
Mackems legend Phillips waxed lyrical over the work Sunderland have done in the transfer market, with the likes of Granit Xhaka, Nordi Mukiele, Habib Diarra, Robin Roefs, and Habib Diarra impressing at the Stadium of Light.
But the 52-year-old, a Premier League Golden Boot and European Golden Shoe winner with Sunderland during his playing career, thinks they could certainly be doing better in front of goal.
Kevin Phillips wants more goal threat from Sunderland’s strikers
It is true that Sunderland’s success has been built largely on an excellent defensive record this term, with Regis Le Bris‘ strikers not putting up especially big numbers.
Brian Brobbey is the man to have consistently led the line in recent weeks, and the 24-year-old has scored five goals in 20 Premier League appearances.
Wilson Isidor was influential in helping the Black Cats to promotion last term, but has managed just four in 22 top-flight outings, while Eliezer Mayenda has just one in 14 league games.
Phillips alluded to this when assessing Sunderland’s season in an interview with TNT Sports, though he was at pains to point out the good work of the transfer team, too.
He said: “If there was one slight criticism, you would probably say they haven’t scored as many goals as we would have liked, but defensively they’ve been outstanding. I think after the promotion from last season, I personally did not think that the club would go out and spend the money they did, the way they did. So it really surprised me.
“And what they did do – and what they didn’t do – they went out, they didn’t just go out and buy any types of players. We’ve seen that from promoted teams before, but they identified the types of players that they needed for the system that Regis Le Bris wanted to play. And for me, that’s really clever recruitment. So you have to say that the recruitment of this football club for a while now has been outstanding.”
What has Regis Le Bris said about Brian Brobbey?
Brobbey initially found minutes hard to come by for Sunderland in the Premier League after joining on a five-year deal back in September.
However, the Netherlands international is the man in possession of the shirt in Sunderland’s lone striker role in recent weeks, and has five goals from his past 15 Premier League appearances.
Brobbey did fail to score in the 3-0 win over Burnley and the defeat to Arsenal by the same scoreline last time out.
- Sunderland have scored just 27 Premier League goals this season, only four few teams have notched fewer
- Brobbey, Isidor, and Mayenda have combined for 10 top-flight goals between them this term
- However, they have shipped just 29 goals in the league so far
- By contrast, fellow promoted sides Leed United and Burnley have let in 43 and 49 respectively
But Mackems boss Le Bris, speaking to the media after the Burnley victory, explained the qualities he sees in Brobbey away from his goals.
He said: “Brian is getting better. I think game after game you can see how strong he is in this part of the pitch. I think his teammates now want to play with him, want to feed him.
“When we get pressed man for man, for example, we still have this option to go long, then we can support and we can break the press. So it was really important today. He could have scored, maybe once or twice, but he worked really hard.”