When Sunderland goalkeeper Anthony Patterson picked up an injury back in October, a fellow shot-stopper may have been forgiven if one of his Black Cats teammates was to blame.
Bogdan Moskvichev, after all, knows all too well the stinging pain that comes from throwing your body in the way of one of Wilson Isidor’s TNT-powered blockbusters.
Isidor, before moving to Wearside late in the summer transfer window, trained alongside Moskvichev at Russian giants Zenit St Petersburg.
And while the Frenchman’s time at Zenit was hardly a happy one – Isidor’s close confidantes were delighted when Sunderland rescued him from that Gazprom Arena nightmare – Moskvichev knows from first-hand experience just how fearsome the Black Cats loanee can be when he fizzes his laces through a football at full pelt.
Now, the task falls upon Anthony Patterson and Simon Moore to go face-to-face with Isidor on the training pitch.
Sunderland’s number one could return from injury against Millwall on Saturday. And, with Regis Le Bris keen to avoid a setback, the head coach must be tempted to add some extra padding to Patterson’s gloves.
Sunderland striker Wilson Isidor is ‘horrible’ to come up against
“Isidor… such a hammer! Horrible,” Moskvichev laughs, speaking to Match TV when asked to name the player with the hardest shot he has come up against on the pitch or the trainnig ground.
“He once put the ball on the goal line after training and decided to kick it out like a goalkeeper. He fired it so hard that it almost flew into the opponent’s penalty area!
“It was like it was fired from a cannon.”
Fortunately for Patterson, Moore and co, Isidor tends to save his most brutal strikes for a matchday.
With five goals in his last nine starts, the in-form centre-forward is currently the top scorer at Championship leaders Sunderland.
He followed up his stunning solo effort against Hull with a blinding volley against Oxford while hitting his stride in the North East. Isidor’s ‘fantastic’ finish put Sunderland ahead against Coventry last time out, too, the former France Under 21 international putting together his very own Goal of the Season competition in those red and white stripes.
Le Bris, who worked with a young Isidor at FC Lorient across the channel, believes that the striker can still get better. It is not just his lethal ball-striking, meanwhile, that makes Isidor so integral to Sunderland’s gameplan.
Regis Le Bris delighted by Isidor’s Black Cats impact
“He wants to improve. This part of his personality is very interesting to us,” Le Bris said a few weeks ago.
“His profile matches very well what we needed to improve our game. He is very orientated to run in behind – he is very generous – and with good timing. The connection with our striker, running in behind, was very important because we can create a chance just with one pass.”
A case in point; Isidor combined beautifully with Dan Neil in that Oxford win. The former darted in behind the visiting backline, allowing Neil to scoop a pass over the top to secure Sunderland all three points.
“Now, we have a better connection with him,” adds Le Bris, who feels that Elezier Mayenda and the speedy Aaron Connolly are also capable of thriving in Isidor’s place if required.
“It’s not finished, [Isidor] can improve. We’ve got this connection with Elezier and Aaron as well.
“[Mobile strikers who run in behind means] we can create spaces inside. We worked a lot on the sides with our triangles. And, with a striker that is able to run in behind now, we have space to exploit.
“So I think, now, we probably have a better balance in possession and it’s a good orientation for us. Interesting.”