Kristjaan Speakman has given his opinion on the future of Sunderland’s underperforming forwards.
Sunderland had been without Ross Stewart since he had a catastrophic injury in January 2023, while Joe Gelhardt’s loan period ended in the summer.
As a result, the Black Cats recruited Luis Hemir Semedo, Nazariy Rusyn, Eliezer Mayenda, and Mason Burstow.
Nazariy Rusyn was the only one of the four with regular senior football experience, and this became obvious as the forwards struggled to adjust to the Championship.
The Ukrainian was the first to score in Sunderland’s 2-0 success over Preston earlier this month, while Burstow scored the first goal in the weekend’s triumph against Stoke.
They are still far from the standard expected of a promotion-chasing team, and their futures appear even more uncertain as Sunderland continue to hunt for a proven goalscorer before tomorrow’s deadline.
The Black Cats might possibly have five forwards if they can sign target Kieffer Moore, but Kristjaan Speakman believes the kids will improve with time.
“We’ve got a lot of belief in the players in the group,” Speakman told the Sunderland Echo.
“We just need to gain clarity, and perhaps we haven’t done a good enough job of communicating what we expect from the players. We signed a player around a year ago, for example, and much of the comments we received on fan forums was that he had not performed well enough. Internally, we believed he had already accomplished more than we anticipated.
“We’ve got to understand where they are in the career, where they are now and where we’re trying to get them to,” he said.
“I understand now that we live in a world where we all demand things right away – it’s obviously ideal if players show up, integrate, and perform quickly. Amad arrived, and I don’t believe anyone would claim he was in the team from the start, and everyone said, ‘This kid is going to be a superstar for Sunderland’; it took him some time to adjust. Ross Stewart, I believe it was around six months into his time here that he began to play frequently. Players are not robots; you cannot move a human and expect them to perform the same way in a new location.
“It is our responsibility to attempt to create that environment for them, and then it is up to them to take the initiative. I have trust that the guys will continue to improve. What level they can reach depends on various things. If I had the answer, it would be the Coca-Cola secret. We strive to make the best decisions and choices possible based on the information we have.
Is it too little, too late?
Kristjaan Speakman is correct in stating that no one expected Ross Stewart and Amad Diallo to perform as well as they did, but I don’t believe anyone is questioning whether these four strikers will be good in the future.
We certainly purchased them with the future in mind, but Sunderland fans are concerned that we require a goalscorer right now.
The four summer additions could be terrific signings in a few years, but that doesn’t assist us right now. We don’t want to wait years for a promotion, therefore our pursuit of Kieffer Moore may have come too late.
