HAVING spent most of the last three months desperately trying to plug gaps in the attacking third, Tony Mowbray admits his biggest challenge at the moment is trying to squeeze as many of Sunderland’s in-form forwards into the team as possible.

While Mowbray was deprived of a natural centre-forward for much of the first half of the season, he now finds himself with Ross Stewart and Ellis Simms available and in fine goalscoring form.

Amad Diallo has made himself all-but-undroppable thanks to the quality of his recent displays, but there is also Jack Clarke and Patrick Roberts to squeeze into the wide attacking positions and potentially Alex Pritchard to accommodate as well if the midfielder’s latest calf problem is not too serious.

After Thursday’s sparkling display against Wigan, Abdoullah Ba has to come into the attacking equation, while Jewison Bennette and Leon Dajaku also remain on the fringes, hoping for more game time.

It is quite a headache for the Sunderland boss, and while he always been an attack-minded manager keen to get as many goalscoring threats onto the field as possible, Mowbray accepts he will have to strike the right balance as his side look to maintain their current position in the play-off spots.

“We’ve got some talented attackers,” said the Black Cats head coach, ahead of the New Year’s Day game at Blackpool. “It’s not easy to manage, because generally attacking players have egos attached to them, and they all want to play.

“They all sulk when they come off because they think they can score, and yet my job is to incorporate everybody but also try to get them to be humble enough to understand that it’s not about them. I tell them I love them all, yet I can’t pick eight strikers and attacking midfielders because we have to try to win the match.

“Football’s always about a balance, but there is a lot of riches in that attacking part of the field now considering that a couple of months ago, we had no strikers at all. Now, we seem to be flush with them. We’ve picked up defensive injuries, so we’ll have to try to get them back, but things are definitely looking brighter at the other end.”

Ba’s emergence was one of the highlights of Thursday’s win at the DW Stadium, with the French teenager causing havoc in the first half in particular as he repeatedly broke with pace and purpose and sliced through the Wigan defence.

Having joined Sunderland from Le Havre on a long-term deal in the summer, the 19-year-old has had to bide his time for a place in the first team.

He seized his chance at Wigan, and while he is likely to find himself coming in and out of the team in the next few weeks, he already looks to have struck up an effective partnership with Amad Diallo and is set to play an increasingly influential role in the second half of the campaign.

“He’s a really good player,” said Mowbray. “We’ve been working hard on his discipline to play the position he’s been asked to play because he wants to run everywhere and show us what he can do. Sometimes, he leaves his area of the pitch vacant because he’s run over to the other side.

“It’s about telling him to be more disciplined and play his position – the ball will find you. We’re a team that’s going to become positionally strong, so when the ball’s on the other side of the pitch, don’t go running over there to get a kick.

“He’s starting to pick it up, I think. He’s starting to understand and learn. He’s very talented. You could see his mobility and how tight he is with the ball. He’s a goal threat, and just another good option for us really. In my mind, he’s another attacking option to go with all the others.”

Alex Pritchard is facing another lay-off after suffering a recurrence of his calf injury on Thursday night, but Sunderland could have Danny Batth and Dennis Cirkin back in the squad when they head to Bloomfield Road.