AFTER success in the transfer market earlier this week, Sunderland manager Alex Neil concedes there is still work to do to add numbers to his squad and increasing his attacking options remains a priority.
Aji Alese was the latest summer recruit earlier this week joining the club alongside Daniel Ballard and Jack Clarke but the work on the transfer front won’t stop there for the club with their season getting underway in a fortnights time.
“We’ve still got signings to make in a variety of positions so we know we’ve got work to do” he said.
“We’ve worked well and quietly in the background to get players in which is good and I think we understand that we have got more to do because it’s going to be a long hard difficult season in the Championship. It’s a tough level to operate at, particularly the fact that we’ve not been there for a significant amount of time. It will certainly open some eyes when we get there.”
While there has been success during pre-season in bringing players to the club, it’s well documented that they remain light on the number of forwards in the squad.
Ross Stewart stands alone as the only striker in the first-team and if the Scotsman were to get injured, it would leave Neil having to use a player out of position as seen earlier this week against Roma when Leon Dajaku was used as a central striker.
Sunderland have held discussions with Everton over bringing Nathan Broadhead back to the club. They have also submitted enquiries to Tottenham Hotspur over the availability of Troy Parrott, who is with the Spurs squad on their pre-season tour of South Korea.
Neil added: “You always want a replacement so if Ross (Stewart) is not available, we’ve got somebody who can do a job. Equally in competition to push him because everybody is not going to play well all the time and we need to have other guys there that can step in and do a job."
The manager admitted after the 2-0 friendly win over Dundee United that he will experiment with the shape of his team for forthcoming friendlies. The Black Cats boss used a 4-2-3-1 formation at Tannadice Park but they are expected to experiment with a 3-5-2 before the start of the season. For that, the boss wants a striker in to play alongside Stewart or to give the team a different option.
“We also need variety” he said. “We want a different type that offers something slightly different from what Ross can bring but that’s the same with every position so it’s not solely for a centre forward. That’s across the board.”
However, when quizzed specifically about the number of forwards he wants to add to the squad, Neil was quick to labour the point that their only focus isn’t just on buying strikers. “That’s not solely for that position, we’ve got other positions that we need to try and recruit in but everybody behind the scenes has been working together” he continued.
“We know what we’ve got to do so it’s not like it’s just my feeling. It’s the feeling across the board. We just need to work hard to try and get them across the line.”
Sunderland return to pre-season action on Tuesday evening when they make the trip to League Two side Bradford City.
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