'In the headlights' - Tony Mowbray's interesting striker verdict ahead of Leicester City clash

Tony Mowbray is weighing up Sunderland's striker situation ahead of Tuesday's clash against league leaders Leicester City in the Championship.

The Black Cats have lost three of their last five games and suffered defeat at the hands of former coach Alex Neil as Sunderland succumbed 2-1 to Stoke City last Saturday at the Bet365 Stadium.

Mowbray opted for a strikerless formation against The Potters, leaving summer signings Mason Burstow, Luis Hemir Semedo and Nazariy Rusyn on the bench - though the trio were deployed as subs in the second half.

“Mason’s the one that we’ve gone to so far, really, because he’s athletic, he can run and he closes people down well," Mowbray said of Chelsea loanee Burstow.

"I think he’s still a boy though, and he has to learn about double movements in the box and how to find space and make clever runs in behind. I think he’s trying to take all that on board, but he’s still learning. We show him a lot of video stuff back, and he looks you in the eye and takes it in."

Mowbray was, however, quick to point out the differences between Burstow and former Benfica striker Luis Hemir Semedo.

“Hemir is different. We’ve talked a lot about Hemir in relation to the physical aspect of the game," Mowbray added. "So much of modern-day football is about what happens when you don’t have the ball – how you press and close teams down.

"I think because of the support base and who we are here at Sunderland, we need to play on the front foot and we need to get our fans wrapped up in the game. We need to be aggressive, and at this moment, Hemir needs to keep developing his aerobic capacity to be able to help our team."

Sunderland's head coach also has the option of Rusyn to call on now as the forward works his way towards a starting spot in Mowbray's starting XI.

“With Rusyn, he’s not really a young boy – he’s 24 or 25 – but he’s come from Ukraine and, in my mind, he’s still a little bit in the headlights. He still doesn’t really know where he is almost. He’s finding it difficult, but you can see he’s got talent and he’s sharp and clever with the ball.

"At some stage, I’ll just throw him in, but ideally, you don’t really want to be just throwing him in, you want him to learn how we play and what we do. It’s a difficult scenario."

Sunderland are also hopeful that summer signing Mayenda can make an impact this season following his own summer transfer move and subsequent injury.

“Mayenda’s having his first game for the Under-21s. We’ve been looking forward to it because he’s exciting in training, I’ve said that once or twice. He needs to stay fit now and play some games," Mowbray added.

"Hopefully, he can play again on Friday against Spurs and then he might be in the mix for sitting on the bench. He’s different to the players we’ve got. He’s left-footed, dynamic and can beat a man with speed and power. He looks exciting, but we need him to stay fit and then we can give him a chance. I would think his next game will be on Friday against Tottenham."