da realbet： Kevin Phillips has sent a warning to Sunderland striker Charlie Wyke, urging him to find form as the Mackems bid for promotion back to the Championship.
What’s he said?
da cassino： Sunderland have been excellent in recent months and have taken seven wins from their last nine outings. On top of that, they’ve tasted defeat only once in their previous 13 matches, a 2-0 loss to Portsmouth.
The Black Cats have turned their fortunes around in some fashion but one man who is still searching for form is Charlie Wyke.
The striker has four goals this season in the league but has found the back of the net just once in his last seven outings.
It’s been a torrid run from the 27-year-old and he may well have Kyle Lafferty breathing over his shoulders in the weeks to come. Although, Phillips is backing Phil Parkinson’s current favourite to begin firing again.
He told Football Insider:
“You want your strikers scoring goals regularly. He has got Lafferty who can come in and work alongside him and with his experience, you would expect him to get goals before now and the end of the season.
“There is always going to be a spell at a club where your main striker is going to go three, four, five games without a goal. You have to hope one of your centre-halves gets one, a midfielder chips in with a couple.
“At the moment I am not worried because we are getting away with it but you do not want him [Charlie Wyke] to be having this conversation in four weeks’ time. At home to Bristol Rovers this weekend so you would like to think he has an opportunity to get a goal there.”
Improvement needed
If there was one criticism of Sunderland during their impressive run it would be an inability to kill games off in a ruthless fashion.
Since Parkinson arrived they’ve bagged 31 times in 25 encounters, but they have only won by a margin of three goals or more on three occasions under the former Bolton boss.
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Sunderland have improved but they need someone who is going to score goals on a regular basis. Wyke isn’t proving to be that man at the moment and it might not be too long before Lafferty gets a chance to either start ahead of him or play alongside the current option.
The Northern Irishman is yet to find the back of the net either so it’s certainly testing times for the out and out forwards at the Stadium of Light.
However, as Phillips notes, they face Bristol Rovers this weekend. They have a goal difference of -7 so it’s a great chance for Wyke to finally find his shooting boots.
Meanwhile, Sunderland are playing a RISKY game with Jon McLaughlin…