WHEN Tony Mowbray first sat down with Joe Gelhardt in January, the Sunderland head coach explained his vision and how he intended to get the best out of the Leeds United loanee on Wearside.

Gelhardt was the most in-demand loan signing in the winter window and Mowbray convinced the youngster that Sunderland was the right move as he purred about the potential of an attacking pairing with Ross Stewart.

He told the 20-year-old that he envisaged him playing off Stewart and buzzing around the striker, picking up loose balls and troubling defenders with his movement. Gelhardt was sold.

But the day after the youngster put pen to paper on his loan move, everything changed. Stewart suffered a season-ending injury in the FA Cup tie at Fulham, Sunderland failed to land another frontman in the final days of the window and Gelhardt was left as the only recognised striker on the club's books.

Mowbray was forced into a rethink and Gelhardt has since been thrust into the role of line-leading striker for the Black Cats.

So far, it's been tough for the loanee. He's scored just once, in the defeat at Rotherham, with Mowbray admitting the role Gelhardt is having to play doesn't particularly suit the forward's skillset. But Mowbray's hands are tied. With no other fit strikers in the squad, what choice does he have?

"When I first met him I talked about what his preferred role was," explained Mowbray.

"We talked about him as a nine and a half really, which means he's happy to play 10, he's happy to play wide, he's happy to play down the middle. And yet it wasn't the intention to put such a young guy as the main man down the middle.

"The plan was to play off a centre-forward really because I feel when I watched his best clips at Leeds when he's been on the pitch playing in the Premier League, he sort of buzzes around the main guy and dives into little spaces.

"And yet at the moment he's the main focal point rather than the guy who the defenders aren't marking. In an ideal world, the main guy moves them (the defenders) out the way and Joe dives in and buries it in the bottom corner. At the moment he's the main focus of the defenders and it's a different role for him."

Mowbray admits Gelhardt is suffering a little bit of a crisis of confidence, but the head coach doesn't intend to pull him out of the firing line at Norwich City tomorrow, partly because he doesn't have anyone to replace him.

"In these next 11 games I said to him he has to try and stay robust and fit and strong and try and rebuild some confidence, because I do think his confidence is pretty low at the moment," admitted the Sunderland boss.

"But he'll be given opportunities. I don't sit here at this moment and think I'll put him on the bench and protect him a little bit and see if he can come off the bench and liven the game up. The burden on him is he has to generally start because he's the only striker we have who is close to being a nine."

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Only once in their last seven league outings have Sunderland managed to score more than a single goal in a game, but coping without strikers is something Mowbray has had to get used to since his appointment.

"It's been like that since the day I walked in," he says.

"Ross (Stewart) scored two goals against Rotherham the day I walked in, then got injured in the next game. We played with Ellis Simms for a while, then he picked up an injury then went back to Everton.

"Young Gelhardt came in who was really brought in to play alongside Ross Stewart and play around him and play off his touches and physicality.

"We've been trying to find a way and generally we do find a way. I think Cardiff (in November) was the last time we didn't score.

"But sometimes the balance of how many men you need to play in front of the ball and attack potentially doesn't keep you as solid and defensively sound as you'd want to be. Football is all about balance. Generally we've got it not too bad this season then every now and again, as last weekend showed, we get the balance wrong and you can get punished."