Tony Mowbray outlines ideal deadline day for Sunderland and the positions he wants strengthening

Sunderland are hoping to recruit more attacking player in the final stages of the window but Tony Mowbray is also eager to see the club strengthen in central midfield.

Dan Neil and Pierre Ekwah have formed an impressive partnership in recent months but Mowbray is concerned about the lack of depth behind them, and has spoken openly of a desire to add a more experienced option. Corry Evans is not expected to return from his ACL injury until around the new year.

"It looks to me that Pierre and Dan are going to learn on the job," Mowbray said.

"We have talked a lot about trying to get some reinforcements in that area because if one of the gets injured…

"I think Jobe can drop deeper but then we have to experiment with a 17-year-old boy playing centre-midfield. In my opinion, we could do with another one.

"I don't worry about whether he plays or not - if Pierre sits on the bench for some games or Dan has to have a rest, what's wrong with that?

"I don't think they can play 46 games.

"We have to have some backup otherwise we are potentially asking for trouble somewhere down the line.

"We talk about the fluency and the style of play, and it might disappear if you don't have players who can move the ball through the pitch quickly, shift the ball from side to side, get it to the wide players, because you are just accommodating a different type of footballer in those areas.

"I hope that in the next 36 hours we do have some reinforcements in central midfield, and we do have some attacking players - whether one is a wider player, whether one is right down the middle - because we do have Hemir, we do have Eliezer to come back.

And at this moment, as we sit here, we do have Ross Stewart available in three, four, five weeks."

Sunderland's Ross Stewart is the subject of significant interest from Southampton, which has further complicated their striker search. They continue to push for a deal for Ukrainian forward Nazariy Rusyn, but Stewart's departure would mean another is required.