The Black Cats made three additions in the January transfer window and now face Middlesbrough on Sunday

Before Sunderland’s Championship match against Middlesbrough on Sunday, manager Michael Beale took some time to reflect on the business of the previous month and stated that the Black Cats had a successful transfer window in January.

 

After the window, the Wearsiders head to the Riverside with three new members to bolster Beale’s options: Leo Hjelde, Romaine Mundle, and Callum Styles. While Jay Mateta temporarily joined Oxford, Nectar Triantis and Eliezer Mayenda left on deadline day loan moves to Hibernian.

After a relatively quiet month for Sunderland, it had a chaotic last few days of the window when Alex Pritchard left Wearside per his request, joining former Black Cats manager Tony Mowbray at Birmingham City. Now that the window has passed, Beale wants to concentrate on Sunderland’s current task of advancing to the play-offs, beginning on Sunday with a challenging matchup against Michael Carrick’s Boro. However, he did so after expressing his satisfaction with the club’s performance in the window.

“The three very good players who have come in were targets for the club.” He stated. “I’m familiar with the players. With the group, Leo (Hjelde) has spent the most time. I watched this youngster blossom in Scotland, and he performed admirably when he moved to Leeds. He has had a good loan at Motherwell and is well-liked in his foreign squad. Given the scarcity of left-footed defenders capable of playing left-back, he provides us with excellent balance. We believe we have a very talented player in that signing.

“Romain left Spurs for Standard Liege after an outstanding academy career. Callum Styles is a fantastic football player who will be a huge asset to the team. He’s been on the team’s radar for a while and gives us superb visibility in wide areas. He has obviously played a lot for Hungary and is a versatile midfielder who can also play full-back and wing-back in the Euros. So, it’s extremely good in terms of the “ins.”

“The boys that have gone out, I feel it was part of their plan ultimately to go out and play more in the second half of the season. Certainly in Nectar’s (Triantis) and Eli’s (Mayenda) situation I feel they are players we have high hopes for the future. In terms of Jay (Mateta), he’s just missed a lot of football and could do with playing. So all in all it was busy, positive and we now move forward.”

 

Sunderland must now press on without an experienced striker, with Nazariy

Rusyn and Mason Burstow likely to share the No 9 duties in the coming weeks. The

pair have scored just twice in a Sunderland shirt all season, with

Burstow getting off the mark in last weekend’s 3-1 win over Stoke City. But

Beale stressed the need for the side to ‘step up’ and support whoever occupies

the frontman role, and wants to see the team take responsibility for goalscoring.

 

“Relaxed is a big word for a manager when you’re chasing a place in the play-offs and pushing on from there,” he said

when asked about the striker situation. “Mason (Burstow) played ever so well

last week and scored a goal, Nas (Rusyn) has done well and if you asked him what

his main position is he would probably say as a left forward coming inside. He

scored a couple of goals for the second team there earlier in the week.

“Semedo is a guy for whom I believe we should have great expectations going forward. He’s clearly acclimating to the country and has had a few fitness setbacks recently, which is why he was unable to play in the B-team match against Leeds. The squad scores goals as a whole, and last weekend we had three different goal scorers, which is encouraging for all of us.

“The group must take a stand. Being a striker at Sunderland has, in my opinion, occasionally been challenging. Do we cross the ball enough, or do we try to achieve the ideal goal through a lot of complex play? Therefore, it’s critical that we feed the ninth, no matter who is within. It’s critical that they receive excellent service and have nearby players. I firmly believed that last week was a positive move.”

 

Even though Sunderland supporters are hesitant to refer to any matchup with Middlesbrough as a “derby,” this weekend’s matchup involves more than just a local rivalry. Dan Neil was sent off in the Black Cats’ 4-0 defeat in the match that followed at the Stadium of Light. Beale knows full well that Boro’s danger under Michael Carrick, but he is supporting his team to secure a significant victory away.

“It’s a really good game,” he declared. We are fifth and they are sixth in the league and form, so if you look at the previous six games, you’ll see that there are two teams with identical number of points who are both on a high note and have similar goals. There is undoubtedly a motivation to play well because we are aware of what transpired during the home game. We’ll have to since Middlesbrough is a formidable opponent.

 

“Michael Carrick’s managerial career is off to a strong start. They’ve played Chelsea and Aston Villa at home in the past month, and they won both games, so I believe it should serve as a warning about how good they are at home. However, there are places that we can utilize. We’ll have to give it our all.

“Every game is unique; this one will undoubtedly have a new coach and a few new players, and the times we play in

are different. As we have seen in previous games this year, when we have

been quite merciless in games and scored goals, it all comes down to the

penalty boxes. You could say that last weekend was similar to that: while Stoke

didn’t take his chances, we did. In terms of the overall result, perhaps it wasn’t a

good representation of how the game was played between the boxes, but we

definitely want to perform better this weekend.”