KAZENGA LUALUA wants to give Sunderland’s fight for Championship survival the kickstart it requires – even if that means playing out of position under Chris Coleman.

When Coleman drafted LuaLua in from Brighton in late January, the Black Cats manager suggested that he viewed him as a striker option this season.

That is contrary to where he has spent the vast majority of his career having played out wide for Newcastle, Doncaster, Brighton and Queens Park Rangers.

But given the shortage of central attacking options at Coleman’s disposal, the Sunderland boss is thinking of playing him through the middle and that could arrive sooner rather than later.

LuaLua provided Sunderland with some fresh attacking impetus, which wasn’t too difficult after a dreadful second half showing, when he was introduced as a substitute against Preston last Saturday.

That was his fourth appearance from the bench and he is yet to start since leaving Brighton and having his loan at Queens Park Rangers terminated early – so that could finally arrive when Sunderland head to Derby on Good Friday.

LuaLua said: “It is the manager’s choice and wherever he puts you, you play, I’m happy to do it. I’ve not played there too many times, I was always a winger at Brighton but wherever the manager puts me I’ll do a job for the team.

“I hope I can put a run together now, fingers crossed. It has been really hard for me since I came here, I’ve had ankle issues. But I’ve trained for a few days now and feel fine after that game, so hopefully I can stay fit until the end of the season.”

Coleman certainly knows he needs to find something different, and extra in the final third. The latest defeat to Preston has left Sunderland five points from safety with eight games remaining, a tall order to stay up by any standard of squad.

Sunderland have not won in ten matches and have not scored in six of those, including the last three games.

Coleman said: “To win a game of football you’ve got to score a goal and we’re lacking confidence in that area. (Ashley) Fletcher’s lacking a lot of confidence. Josh Maja’s young, Joel Asoro’s young.

“Nevertheless these are the boys with the best chance of doing something for us. We’ve got Kazenga LuaLua back and more offensive players like Aiden McGeady and Callum McManaman but we need these boys to step up and create something for us with the last pass or a good cross or something like that.

“When we do that we need bodies in that final third and that’s the only way we’re going to do it. It’s hard for us at the minute because we’re lacking confidence in that area.”

As well as the shortage of goals, Sunderland are still leaking them too frequently; they have not kept a clean sheet during the ten match winless run and in fact have only kept five all season in the league.

LuaLua might have only been here since January but has experienced why, highlighted last weekend when Preston’s Callum Robinson and Sean Maguire were allowed far too much space to head in the two crucial goals at the back post.

“It is very frustrating, every week is a silly mistake,” said LuaLua. “In a league like this it is especially important, the players are big and physical. You have to keep your focus and do your job for 90 minutes.

“It is hard to correct it, and it is not easy for me just to say we’ll bounce back. It is a tough place to be, you want to close the gap to two points, it is tough to take.”