The return of Ross Stewart highlighted just how important he is to Sunderland

It's good to have Ross Stewart back!

Author:
Adam Voisey
Publish date:
Dec 18, 2022 2:00 PM EST

The return of Ross Stewart at Hull has given all Sunderland fans a warm feeling this weekend. More to the point, the much-loved striker's thirty-minute cameo at Hull gave us all an insight into what we have been missing in the time he’s been laid up on the treatment table.

Stewart's impact on the team was immediate. For starters, his goal just ten minutes after coming on typified his effort and his hard work as always. After going down to ten men and sacrificing most of our attacking play, Stewart chased a long pass from Patrick Roberts and coolly slotted under the onrushing Hull goalkeeper to give us an unlikely lead.

Okay, so we couldn’t quite manage to hold on to what would have been an outstanding victory under the circumstances, but Stewart’s goal showed us what we have missed for the time he’s been injured.

It is not just the goals, either. Sunderland have missed Stewart’s pressing from the front a lot over the last three months. The team has lacked a focal point to trigger the press.

Whilst Ellis Simms' return was sooner than Stewarts’, he is a different player. A great example was last season at home to Sheffield Wednesday in the playoffs when a quick ball out of a defence resulted in Stewart pressurizing the defender into a mistake - and him scoring what turned out to be a pivotal goal in the two legs.

Yesterday’s goal wasn’t too different from that. Stewart's nonstop work rate should also help the more creative and flair players, with his ability to drag opposition defenders around likely to create space for players like Amad Diallo, Jack Clarke, and Patrick Roberts to use.

Stewart’s defensive play cannot be underestimated either. There is a case to be made that his defending from set plays is very underestimated, but it was evident as Hull peppered the Sunderland box in the latter stages. The Sunderland team lacks height, something which Mowbray has alluded to in his time with us. It may be why Aji Alese is currently being preferred to Dennis Cirkin at left back. Stewart, though, has that ability to dominate defensive areas just as much as he can in attacking situations.

Over the coming games, it will be interesting to see how Stewarts’ return and minutes are managed. The festive time of year is always the most hectic and this year is no different with four games coming over the next two weeks.

We all probably want him to play every minute of every game, but Mowbray and his coaching team must be trusted to manage him accordingly. Last thing we want is him to suffer any reoccurrences of his injury.

It will also be interesting to see what formation is used after Stewart's return. Does Mowbray play two strikers with him and Simms? Mowbray said the plan was to do just that for the last 20 minutes at Hull, but is it viable long-term?

A more creative player would have to be sacrificed, and Amad’s recent form means it’s almost impossible to drop him. Clarke gone slightly off the boil in recent games, but will Stewart's return give him a boost by providing a focal point in attack?

The game at Hull also marked the exact halfway point in the season for Sunderland, and Stewart’s return could be a real difference-maker. The Black Cats are bang on halfway in the table, seven points clear of the bottom three but just three short of the top six and the playoff spots.

If Stewart can hit anywhere near the form he showed before his injury, it could give Sunderland every chance of making a genuine promotion push.

The obvious elephant in the room, of course, is his contract situation. This was spoken about by Kristian Speakman in a fan talk recently, and whilst he didn’t go as far as to say it was a done deal that a new contract had been accepted, he gave assurances that Ross is keen to stay.

The option is there for an extension in the summer for a further year so there doesn’t seem to be a great panic at the boardroom level anyway at this stage.

As fans of course we would rather see him sign as soon as possible. How the club is now run means we won’t go above and beyond what we think is acceptable, and we probably just have to accept that, Alex Neil is a good case in point in that - the club offered him what we believed to be a good amount for this level we are at, but he decided otherwise.

We can only hope that Ross can see the long-term visions of the club better then Neil did.

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