Sunderland need Joe Gelhardt to 'adapt his game'

Tony Mowbray wants Joe Gelhardt to ‘adapt’ to playing as lone striker, and that means getting himself in the box.

Gelhardt is the only available striker to Sunderland for the rest of the season, with the on-loan Leeds man starting the games against Millwall and Reading.

He has struggled in those games, though, with him never really playing up front on his own before. The 20-year-old has generally been used as a second striker or a wide forward in his career so far, and that means he has to learn a new way of playing to meet the demands at Sunderland.

Mowbray, though, says that doesn’t mean he has to sacrifice his natural instincts to come deep or make runs down the channel. It just means he has to make it his responsibility to be in the box when the ball arrives too.

“I think you have to adapt your game really,” Mowbray said, as quoted by the Sunderland Echo..

“As when we’ve played with no strikers you have to make sure that when the ball is coming in the box that people are in the box, whether it be the opposite wide man getting in, whether it’s No 10s. With Joe I have no issues with him coming deep, linking and joining.

“You saw [Aleksandar] Mitrovic was like a masterclass of doing it twice against us in recent weeks, how deep he comes to join in with their build-up and yet always arrives in the box at the right time.

“He either jogs in there because the build-up is slow down the wing and he arrives as the cross comes in, or he’s bursting a lung to get in there because they are fast down the byline and are looking for a cutback.

“I think Joe has got to be like that really, part of the build-up, get involved in the game, can’t just always think you are going to sit on the shoulder and run in behind.

“He’s very technical and he won’t lose the ball for us, even in tight areas he’s a good footballer, but he has to be in the box when the ball arrives, as does Roberts, as does Clarke, Amad or Pritchard. They have to get in the box to score goals for us as well.”

Sunderland need Joe Gelhardt to 'adapt his game' - Tony Mowbray

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