A worrying stat about Sunderland’s attack since Tony Mowbray left the club has emerged.
Tony Mowbray became a fan favourite as he led Sunderland to the Championship playoffs in their first season since promotion, but the start of the current campaign didn’t go quite as well.
The 60-year-old led the Black Cats to eight wins in the first 20 games and endured defeats to the likes of Plymouth Argyle, Stoke City and Cardiff.
As a result, Mowbray was sacked at the start of December and eventually replaced by Michael Beale.
Most supporters welcomed Mowbray’s exit as they assumed someone even better would be brought in, however the club was slammed when it turned out to be Beale who would take the reins on Wearside.
The former QPR and Rangers coach only lasted 12 games before he was sent packing, but things are yet to improve two weeks on. Sunderland have now lost four games on the bounce and sit nine points adrift from the playoff positions.
While the Black Cats were hardly at their best under Mowbray, the rapid decline since he left is glaringly obvious.
As per the Sunderland Echo, Sunderland’s average XG under Mowbray was 1.68, while it has dropped dramatically to only 1 since. The report explains how this illustrates a ‘remarkable collapse’ at the Stadium of Light.
Who is to blame?
Mowbray took charge of 19 league games for Sunderland this season, with the team scoring 29 goals and conceding 22 in the process.
Sunderland have since played 16 games and have scored only 17 goals, while they have let in 18. What is even worse is that only five of those goals have come on the road – four of which came from Jack Clarke.
Sunderland don’t have Amad Diallo this season and Patrick Roberts has been significantly worse too, but there is still no excuse for the way our attack has looked since Tony Mowbray left.
Clarke is the only one who seems to know how to take players on, cut inside and score goals. The rest of them look clueless.
Look at Romaine Mundle against Norwich. In his first start against Birmingham, the winger was pushing forward and looking like the creative spark we have missed. But it has only taken a matter of weeks for him to start passing backwards and not bothering to run at the opposition.
We can’t even blame our lack of strikers either, because the service for them is terrible. Even Ross Stewart wouldn’t score many with our lack of creativity.