Joel Asoro on Sunderland form, proving doubters wrong and Callum McManaman's impact

Asoro scored his second senior goal in Saturday’s 3-3 draw with Middlesbrough and after making his initial breakthrough a year ago, the 18-year-old is thrilled to proving any doubters wrong.

He said: “When I came in people maybe looked at me and thought, he’s too little, too weak, too young, but you just can’t give up, keep working and keep believing.

“It has taken me a year, you can get angry when you’re not getting the minutes, but you’ve just got to keep going.

“There’s a bit of competition up front, but you have to be ready, can you bring some energy from the bench? I’m playing in two positions, but at the end of the day I’ve got to do the same things.

“I was expecting at the start of the season to get a few minutes, but the way things have gone, I’ve been lucky.

“The manager has been talking, sometimes happy, sometimes a bit angry. He just wants to bring the best out of you and that’s what you need.

“Scoring goals is good but you always want more and that’s what I keep doing, just trying to target more. You can never settle just because you’ve scored a couple and that’s not me, you have to keep going.”

The striker also had high praise for Callum McManaman after the winger’s superb cameo against Boro, and says the team must ensure their energy levels do not drop.

He said: “You could tell as soon as he came on, the way he took on three or four players, he went past them and got a corner, you could see he had that energy. I really enjoyed seeing him play like that and it was great that he got a goal as well.

“It makes it easier when you have those players coming on, you need what they can do, what they want to do, so you have to just let them do it.

“I know that when they cut inside, if I can make that run inside they’ll be looking for me. Even if I can’t get it, maybe someone else will be free.

“We’ve been saying, we lost against Bolton but you could see the energy from the players, you can see how much we want it and how much we want to win.

“Win, lose or draw you have to do that and we need to take it to the next game now. Don’t settle on that point, take it into the next game.”