Sunderland striker Brian Brobbey has been garnering plenty of praise for his performances of late.

Sky Sports punditry duo Thierry Henry and Jamie Carragher have lavished praise on Sunderland striker Brian Brobbey, explaining why the Dutchman is such a handful for defenders to play against.

The Black Cats summer signing scored his fourth goal of the campaign against Crystal Palace at the weekend, securing all three points for his side with a superbly taken finish to seal a 2-1 victory at the Stadium of Light.

Brobbey’s strike capped another eye-catching display from the 23-year-old, who once again used his impressive physicality to impose himself on the contest at the point of attack. And in a segment on Monday Night Football, Henry and Carragher broke down exactly what it is about the Sunderland star that makes him such a handful.

What did Thierry Henry and Jamie Carragher say about Sunderland striker Brian Brobbey?

Analysing the way that Brobbey likes to do battle with opposing centre-halves, Henry explained: “Look, straight away, he is going to go to the man, he's battling, he's going. The ball is coming. All he does is battle with the man to get the position right. Then he puts his body in and he tries to see if he can play with his teammate.

“And I know people will say, ‘What's big in that?’... What’s big in that is, the defender has to go back... he [Brobbey] knows the ball can come. No-one is shielding. He's already going around the defender, grabbing him. The defender has to go back now - there's nothing he can do here, nothing whatsoever.”

Reflecting on Brobbey’s improvised finish for his winning goal, Henry continued: “I don't know how he scored that, I don't know how... He got a cramp out of it because of the gesture that he made. But what I like with him is the separation that he creates - I'm thinking of Alan Shearer, I'm thinking of Jimmy Floyd [Hasselbaink], I'm thinking of Mark Viduka that used to always let the ball go and straight away go to you. And by the way, big frame, strong, very difficult to stop. I don't know how he scored that, but I know how he created it, though.”

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Carragher added: “The thing that's really interesting from a defender's point of view is that when you think of defenders, it's like, ‘Get tight, be aggressive with the attacker’. When you're playing against someone like that [Brobbey], he's trying to mark you. So even as a defender - the one I always talk about is [Didier] Drogba because I played against him so often - you're not actually trying to mark him. You're trying to get out of the way of him. You're trying to stop him.

“So if he's trying to back in, you're dropping off. And then can you get in front and push up and try and leave him offside? You're permanently playing the game because once he gets that arm out, as you say, or he's backing into you, you're done. You're finished. Once the defender's been pinned, there's nothing he can do. It's game over.”

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