Direct replacement or tactical tweak? Five options for Sunderland in Jack Clarke absence
Many have asked what would Sunderland do without Jack Clarke this season, and it seems we may be about to find out.
The winger was an ever-present in the Championship this season until the Swansea game last week, but it has now been confirmed he will miss the next six weeks due to ankle ligament damage.
So, how can Sunderland cope without their 15-goal top scorer. We’ll find out for sure next season, but the next three or four games will probably give us a little sneak peek.
Here are four options that interim head coach Mike Dodds might be considering.
Romaine Mundle
The most obvious replacement for Clarke, you would think, would be Romaine Mundle.
When Sunderland signed the former Tottenham winger in January it immediately looked a lot like a Jack Clarke succession plan, so perhaps it would be handy to get an early look at just what that might look like.
Mundle made his first start for the club at Birmingham and impressed, although he was playing from the right that day, deputising for the also injured Patrick Roberts.
There will also be question marks over whether he can last for the full 90 minutes yet after playing so little football this season.
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Abdoullah Ba
Ah the great enigma. Abdoullah Ba can be brilliant. He can also be awful. We’re not talking game-by-game here either. He doesn’t have good games and bad games, he has good moments and bad moments.
In essence, every minute is a fresh roll of the dice with Abdoullah Ba.
His best position for Sunderland, by far, has been on the right wing, and he could step into that role again to allow Mundle to switch to the left.
You could just play Ba on the left too, of course. He has looked quite good there before in flashes.
Adil Aouchiche
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Is it just me or is Adil Aouchiche becoming a bit of a forgotten man at Sunderland?
Ever since his cameo off the bench at Ipswich where he missed a glorious chance and gave away a costly free kick, it's like he has fallen off the face of the earth.
That seemed very harsh, though, and maybe it was just a Michael Beale thing, but the Frenchman could be a very good option to fill in for Clarke.
Granted, he's not going to glide past defenders like Clarke does, but his spatial and tactical awareness is exceptional and he played most of his youth football from the left.
Definitely one to consider, although you also feel like if he does play on the left, there needs to be a plan for getting the left-back past him on the overlap.
Nazariy Rusyn
While we know Rusyn best as a striker, much of the fine form he exhibited that got him a move to Sunderland was as a left-winger.
Former club FC Zorya Luhansk used him in a Jack Clarke-style role – kind of a wide striker, tasked with coming inside and getting shots away – more often that they used him in a central role last season and he was more productive from that position too.
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It would certainly be interesting to see him out wide for Sunderland.
There certainly shouldn’t be any worries over his defensive discipline either. He is an incredibly hard worker and Clarke is given certain freedoms on that left hand side that other wingers don’t get anyway.
Two up front
Playing TWO strikers… at the same time… anyone remember that? Apparently, you’re still allowed to.
To be fair to Sunderland, with Jack Clarke excellent essentially as a wide striker, there hasn’t been a huge amount of opportunity to switch to a conventional front two. But now there is.
You may be have to bench the wingers initially as Ba, certainly, would not have the discipline for a 4-4-2, but how about a 3-5-2?
Callum Styles could slot in at left wing-back, possibly Pembele on the right if Hume was needed centrally to cover for Dan Ballard's suspension. Then you could pick whichever two you wanted out of Rusyn, Mason Burstow and Luis Hemir.
Certainly an interesting prospect.
