MICHAEL BEALE is enjoying working with Mason Burstow, and claims he has not considered the option of sending the struggling Sunderland striker back to Chelsea this month.

Burstow made his 12th Black Cats appearance when he came off the bench at the half-time interval of Friday’s 1-1 draw with Rotherham United, but is still to score his first goal for his temporary employers following his loan move from Stamford Bridge.

While three of Sunderland’s summer attacking acquisitions were bought permanently – Nazariy Rusyn, Eliezer Mayenda and Luis Hemir – Burstow is on a season-long loan, and the Black Cats have the option of discussing his future with Chelsea officials this month.

If all parties were in agreement, his loan could be prematurely curtailed, potentially freeing up space on the wage bill for Sunderland to bring in an alternative forward option before the transfer window closes.

However, with Beale still in his first month on Wearside, the recently-appointed head coach would rather focus on developing and improving the 20-year-old than initiate talks about sending him back to west London.

“I haven’t had that discussion,” said Beale, when asked directly about a possible early end to Burstow’s loan deal. “I’ve just come in and I'm having a look at these players.

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“I gave Mason a go (off the bench at Rotherham), I gave young Eliezer a go off the bench against Coventry City last week. I'm looking at the boys in the training, it's my first time working with them and it's been spoken about enough that the strikers we brought in haven't scored yet.

“I'm looking and seeing, and we'll assess as the window opens what it is that we'll do, but my focus at the moment is working with them in training, getting them in front of the goal and scoring. There's a lot of work going on in the background with these strikers and I think it's clear that, as a team, we need to convert our possession into more shots and then more goals.”

While Sunderland dominated possession at Rotherham on Friday night, they had not really threatened the Millers’ goal prior to falling behind to Sam Clucas’ volley at the start of the second half.

They became more threatening from that point onwards, but the fact they had to rely on a deflected shot from Jack Clarke to secure an equaliser once again highlighted the lack of goalscoring threat being posed by whoever is leading the line.

“Before coming in, I think we had the highest expected-goals in the league, but that only matters if you're putting that on the scoreboard,” said Beale. “I want the ball to go in the back of the net. As the away team at Rotherham, we had real difficulties in the game, and yet we still managed to have 70 per cent possession.

“I'm expecting us to work the goalkeeper more than we did and take some of the burden off Jack. At the moment, he's on fire and long may that continue.”

Sunderland are back in action this lunchtime when they host Preston in their opening game of 2024. Friday’s draw left the Wearsiders sitting in seventh position in the Championship table, two points off the play-off positions.

Unsurprisingly, given that it is now just five days away, much of the weekend discussion relating to Sunderland focused on Saturday’s Wear-Tyne derby against Newcastle United in the third round of the FA Cup. The derby promises to be a monumental occasion, but within the dressing room, there is a strong determination not to look beyond today’s meeting with a Preston side that saw off Leeds United on Boxing Day, only to then lose at home to Sheffield Wednesday on Friday night.

“We have to beat Preston on Monday first, then we can switch our focus onto the other game,” said Sunderland goalkeeper Anthony Patterson. “The games come around thick and fast, you can pick up points really quickly, or drop points really quickly that affects the table position quite a lot. We’re happy with four points (from Hull and Rotherham), but we must follow it up on Monday.”

Sunderland (probable, 4-2-3-1): Patterson; Seelt, O’Nien, Ballard, Hume; Neil, Ekwah; Ba, Pritchard, Clarke; Bellingham.