How can Sunderland solve the Aiden McGeady conundrum?

Simon Grayson had helped Aiden McGeady light a fire under his ailing career at Preston North End. His highlight reel at Deepdale was spectacular, one of those players who seemed incapable of scoring a scrappy goal.

He was one of the first faces through the door this summer and while the Irishman was clearly short of his best form, the individual quality was at times mesmerising.

Grayson’s departure perhaps unsurprisingly precipitated a prolonged dip in form and under Chris Coleman, the 31-year-old has been a peripheral figure.

McGeady has two-and-a-half years left on his current deal and quite simply, every party involved needs to make it work. There is said to be a real determination from both player and manager to turn things around and despite the arrival of Kazenga LuaLua, McGeady’s final ball and finishing abilities are one of a kind in this squad.

The prospect of a relegation battle in the Championship should also hold no fear for a player who performed amid the intensity of the Old Firm for seven years and then held down a place in one of Russia’s biggest sides for four years.

The biggest question is a practical one. Where does McGeady fit in to Coleman’s side?

Part of the reason why McGeady was so keen to reunite with Grayson is that the Black Cats boss was happy to give him a free role, under little obligation defensively, able to roam from the left wing to wherever he felt he could do the most damage.

Coleman is unlikely to offer such assurances and to begin with, he does not play with wingers.

The experiment whereby McGeady operated as one of two number tens behind a striker looks to have rightly been shelved. Given the inexperience of his front line, Coleman knows if he plays with five defenders he needs two strikers in the central areas to prevent Sunderland getting pushed back towards their own goal.

So for McGeady to become a regular starter one of two things probably needs to happen.

One, Coleman needs to revert to a back four, allowing McGeady to take up his favoured left-wing position where he can cut inside and open up either the shot or the delivery across the face of goal.

More likely, he will have to show that he has the discipline to play as the number ten in front of the two central midfielders. Ovie Ejaria played that role superbly on Saturday, but struggled once Mick McCarthy became alive to the threat and moved Cole Skuse into a man-marking role.

That neatly surmises the risk that Coleman is presented with.

At the moment, McGeady is struggling to make an impact and perhaps more importantly, when off colour his instinct to take players on can mean the team losing the ball in dangerous areas of the pitch, with little time to defensively reset.

He can, however, produce the match-winning moments that have been all too rare throughout the season.

With 16 games to go, the time for taking risks looks to be drawing ever closer.