Paolo Di Canio says that his Sunderland squad are short up front and that he will prioritise adding extra striking power during the upcoming Transfer Window.
The Italian head coach told The Sunderland Echo that he felt his squad had been left light up front by his predecessor, Martin O’Neill.
January saw a number of strikers leave the Stadium of Light with Louis Saha released, Fraizer Campbell sold to Cardiff City, Ji Dong-Won loaned to Augsburg and Connor Wickham initially loaned to Sheffield Wednesday.
There was just one frontline addition – Swansea City striker Danny Graham – who has failed to score for the Black Cats in 572 minutes, or nine-and-a-half-hours of first-team football.
To that end, youngster Mikael Mandron has been included amongst the substitutes in recent weeks with Graham first and latterly Wickham, both suffering from knocks.
As a result, Di Canio says that his priority this summer will be boosting the club’s striking ranks:
“I don`t want to be critical, but if you`re a team who wants to stay up, or a team who wants to win the league, I think you need five strikers,” revealed the Italian.
“Not three or four; five – one of which should be a young one like Wickham.
“What happens if Fletcher gets a cold? Danny Graham arrived in January and now he`s back in the team, but you can`t afford to be short on strikers.’
With 11-goal top-scorer Steven Fletcher ruled out for the rest of the season, the next highest-scorers and Craig Gardner and Stephane Sessegnon – both on six.
Fletcher has helped himself to a whopping 29% of Sunderland’s Premier League goals this term, with Gardner and Sessegnon both on 16%. The third-highest scorer is Adam Johnson on five (14%).
With just 37 league strikes from 33 games – at an average of 1.1 per game – there are just five teams who have scored fewer goals this term: Reading, QPR, Aston Villa, Stoke City & Norwich City.
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