Stephen Elliott: Sunderland ace Lynden Gooch can play at the highest level - but he must improve in this key area

Getting the best out of his attributes seems to be Gooch’s biggest dilemma.

I watch him sometimes and genuinely find myself thinking Sunderland are lucky to have a player of his quality in this division.

He can score goals out of nothing as we have seen over the past few seasons, his recent individual effort against Oxford springs to mind straight away.

He is direct and can be a real thorn in the side of opposition teams.

Nevertheless, other times I look at him and he seems to make the wrong decisions in important moments on the pitch. This frustrates me as they are only little things but they make a big difference to his performances.

Saturday, I felt he took too many touches at times when it was better advised to move it to somebody else in a better position.

I wonder does he look back on his performances with the video analysts, as players tend to do these days, I’d hope he does as I think it would help his game hugely if he recognises where he can improve.

If everything clicks with him then there’s no doubt he could play at the highest level. Hopefully with a bit of fine tuning in his game we will get to see him play to his highest capabilities more consistently.

If Sunderland are looking to go up this season, moments of magic from Gooch will be required more regularly than what we are seeing just now.

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