Statistics have shown exactly how poor Patrick Roberts was during Sunderland’s defeat to Huddersfield Town yesterday.
Chronicle Live journalist James Hunter claimed the winger was ‘way, way below his best’ and it is now clear to see why.
Patrick Roberts netted five goals and provided seven assists in the Championship last season, however he is yet to get off the mark since scoring against Watford in April.
However, that hadn’t stopped the attacker from troubling opponents and eventually earned him a new contract earlier this month.
But things have gone downhill for Roberts in recent weeks and he now looks on the verge of being dropped after a very disappointing display last night.
Roberts was replaced by Abdoullah Ba in the second half after a largely ineffective performance, with James Hunter giving him a 5 rating at full-time.
As per SofaScore, the 26-year-old made 67 touches – significantly less than Jack Clarke on the opposite side (95), which suggests Tony Mowbray‘s side had turned to his other winger in Roberts’ poor form.
Roberts didn’t have a single shot all game, while he completed only 33% of his crosses (2), was successful in only 50% of his dribbles attempted (2) and lost possession a whopping 13 times.
The forward’s only saving grace was his pass accuracy (91%), which could well have just been because of the amount of sideways and backwards passes we played all game.
Roberts’ performance follows on from another disappontment against Plymouth, in which he was successful in only 14% of his crosses, had only one shot on target and lost possession a further 16 times.
Does Patrick Roberts need to be benched?
While not the only one who has looked underwhelming recently, Patrick Roberts’ form is surely proving to Tony Mowbray that he should be dropped this weekend.
The winger’s only reason for remaining in the team is the lack of quality in his replacement, with Abdoullah Ba not really setting the world alight since he was moved out wide.
But the Frenchman deserves another chance in place of Roberts, as what we are doing now clearly isn’t working.
While we have spent much of the year with the belief that Sunderland have two of the best wingers in the Championship, it also shows how much the quality drops when either of them are out of form.
Who would we play if Jack Clarke was playing badly or was injured? Jewison Bennette certainly wouldn’t be the answer. Perhaps Nazariy Rusyn could also be brought to play out wide.