Stephen Elliott: How Charlie Wyke has pushed himself to the front of the Sunderland striker queue

With Arbenit Xhemajli picking up his unfortunate knee injury during the international break and Tom Flanagan serving his one game ban, we wondered whether Phil Parkinson would stick with his familiar back three or move to a more orthodox back four against Swindon.
Sunderland forward Charlie Wyke.Sunderland forward Charlie Wyke.
Sunderland forward Charlie Wyke.

It wasn’t a major shock to see Conor McLaughlin in the starting eleven, but it may have surprised a few him beginning in the right wing back slot.

Luke O’Nien continued in the left sided centre-back position after his strong performance there in the Carlisle game.

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Parkinson may have been wondering whether a Black Cat (excuse the pun) had crossed his path on the way to Wiltshire when he watched Jordan Willis hobbling off with a knock after 15 minutes of the weekend’s game. Hopefully, it will not be too serious.

He had to reshuffle an already shuffled pack with Jack Diamond coming onto the right and McLaughlin going into the back three. McLaughlin did not let anybody down and looked solid and sharp which is a credit to him giving his lack of game time recently.

Saturday’s away performance was another perfect one and Sunderland were comfortable in picking up another important three points.

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I felt Parkinson was waiting for one of his forwards to push themselves to the forefront of his reckoning and Charlie Wyke may have just done that at the County Ground.

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He looked more mobile than in recent weeks and a lot more confident. His goal and link-up play with Chris Maguire in the Carlisle game obviously left a lasting impression with Parkinson, with the boss going with those two spearheading the attack again.

Wyke was full of energy and put the Swindon defence under constant pressure from the start forcing them into mistakes. He really set the tone for his team behind him.

His goal capped off an impressive individual performance and one that will hopefully be the catalyst that gets his league season up and running.

Grant Leadbitter once again was outstanding, and he marshalled the midfield well alongside Max Power and Josh Scowen. When you watch Sunderland now, you are starting to see a real pattern and prominent style of play.

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The team look dangerous when attacking and are creating chances when getting in that final third.

In Maguire the club have a player who has genuine quality, even if he is a bit of a maverick. He linked the play up well between the lines again and looks like he is loving his football.

He also offers a calm head in front of goal and for me is a must in the starting team whenever he is available.

I would be surprised to see a lot of changes in the team on Tuesday night.

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Diamond will hopefully get another chance on the right which will help him attain the feeling of being a proper first team player at the club, which is essential coming through from the Academy.

Winning games is great, but it is the style and the relative ease in which the recent victories have arrived that pleases me the most.

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