Jack Clarke 'learning but enjoying' new role to help solve Sunderland striker crisis
Jack Clarke says he is ‘learning’ how to play as a striker this season in a bid to try and help Sunderland through their striker crisis.
Clarke has hit a rich vein of form of late, scoring four goals in his last five games in all competitions.
The most recent of those were at QPR this week, with him scoring twice to help Sunderland to a 3-0 win at Loftus Road.
He was used as a central striker in that game in a tactical tweak by boss Tony Mowbray, and he is keen to keep learning the position.
“I think I've adapted as the season’s gone on, playing there to be honest,” Clarke told safc.com.
“We’ve had a lot of games this season where we've not had a natural number nine or whatever, so we've all had to adapt and play different positions and I’ve learned.
“I'm still learning that position. I'm learning as I'm going, but I got asked to play there tonight, tried my best and just luckily got into the right areas twice.”
Clarke has been used is a variety of roles for Sunderland this season, mostly on the left side of the attack.
He started the season at left wing-back, though, and has been used as a lone striker on occasion. The QPR game was the first time he had been used as a striker in a front two, but as long as he’s playing he’s not bothered what role he has.
“As long as I'm playing I'm always going to enjoy it, but I think you've got to be a bit more patient up there.
“You get a lot less of the ball and less opportunities but you've got to do your best for the team when the ball comes to you and hopefully score the goals like I did tonight.”
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