Tony Mowbray has questioned whether Sunderland’s forwards are ‘good enough’ to play in the Championship.
Speaking to Chronicle Live, the Sunderland boss was asked whether Mason Burstow’s failure to get off the mark was beginning to take its toll.
Mowbray said: “He’s not suggesting that by his personality around the building and on the training ground. But I’m sure he is [feeling the pressure], I’me sure every striker who goes a few games without a goal feels that way.
“Is he feeling it? He should be feeling it. He’s only a young kid of course, but we’ll know the right time to take him out of the firing line and give somebody else an opportunity.”
Mason Burstow joined the Black Cats on loan from Chelsea on transfer deadline day with high excitement, however the 20-year-old has now played eight games without a goal.
Burstow was dropped for Nazariy Rusyn as Sunderland hosted Norwich City at the weekend, with the Ukrainian probably doing enough to keep his place in the starting line-up next time out.
Burstow and Rusyn are also joined by Luis Hemir Semedo and Eliezer Mayenda in competing for a place in the team, with the latter yet to make his debut due to a hamstring injury, while the other three still haven’t scored their first goal for the club.
Mowbray has admitted the strikers could take it in turns to get off the mark, however the Sunderland manager still isn’t sure whether they are all cut out for the Championship.
“The other strikers are at different levels of readiness,” said Mowbray.
“Stick the next one in, see how he does, how many games are we giving him? Stick the next one in and let’s see how he goes.
“We have to assess, moving forward, whether we think we have players who are good enough to score goals in the Championship in our team. They are going to be given opportunities, and when the opportunity comes, let’s see if they score.”
An incredibly frustating situation for fans, manager and players
It’s incredibly frustrating that, after months and months of needing a proven striker, we have four that might not even be at Championship standard.
Nazariy Rusyn actually looked very good against Norwich, though he rarely actually had the opportunity to take a shot – and that could be a team problem, rather than just him.
I imagine Tony Mowbray will stick with Rusyn for now, but it does become a real concern if we just have to keep alternating our strikers until one of them finally gets a goal.