Sunderland boss 'not frustrated' by continued failure to land striker

Sunderland head coach Regis Le Bris insists he is ‘not frustrated’ despite the Black Cats’ continued failure to land a senior striker.

A lack of a traditional centre forward who can lead the line in the Championship has been a huge Achilles Heel for Sunderland since promotion from League One.

They originally looked well stocked, with Ross Stewart impressing and Ellis Simms proving an effective foil. However, two serious injuries to Stewart, as well as his eventual sale to Southampton, and Everton recalling Simms from loan, left a void that, incredibly, 19 months later the club are still yet to fill.

Youngsters Eliezer Mayenda and Luis Hemir came in but were quickly overwhelmed by the demands of senior football. Meanwhile, Nazariy Rusyn has struggled to adapt to the sheer physicality and looks unsuited to forging a lone furrow up front.

The summer transfer window, so far, has not proven fruitful, meaning Sunderland are again heading into a Championship season looking very short up front. Le Bris, though, says he is happy to work with what he has for now.

"As a head coach, we still have two ideas,” he said. “The first one is to work with the team, where we have many talented players and strikers, like Eliezer Mayenda, for example.

“We will work with this team against Cardiff so that is my main concern. On the other hand, we want to improve the team and it's difficult to find the right player, the right people to work with because at this club the responsibility is high.

“It's not just a question of finding someone, it's about the right player for our team with this style of play and this responsibility. It's difficult, a long process. We have three weeks ahead. It could be better if he was available now but it's not the case so we work without.

"I'm not frustrated because I like the players we have and with them, we have good potential as a team. With another player we can build something different of course but with these players, we can perform well I think. So let's work with it.”