Why it didn't work out for Bayern Munich loanee Thorben Hoffmann at Sunderland

If the German goalkeeper, 23, had made two more appearances during the 2021/22 campaign, combined with Sunderland’s promotion, a clause in his contract would have triggered a permanent move to Wearside from Bayern Munich.

As it turned out, after making 23 League One starts for the Black Cats, Hoffmann didn’t play another match following February’s 2-1 home defeat by Doncaster.

After dropping out of the side when he tested positive for Covid-19, Hoffmann’s illness coincided with a change of head coach, with Alex Neil replacing Lee Johnson in the dugout.

The form of Sunderland academy graduate Anthony Patterson, who returned from a loan spell at Notts County, in that time gave Neil no reason to drop the 22-year-old.

As a result, after showing signs of promise, Hoffmann’s season fizzled out.

If the Black Cats do go with youth for the 2022/23 Championship season, Patterson is their man. And while Sunderland do need to sign at least one new goalkeeper this summer, that will ideally be someone with more experience.

Hoffmann is also at an age where he will want to play regularly, while he will have benefitted from his spell on Wearside.

During his columns for German publication Kicker, the goalkeeper has spoken about adapting to conditions in England, as well as playing regularly in front of 30,000 people at the Stadium of Light.

Hoffmann appeared to embrace the culture after moving to a new country and highlighted the “confidence, composure and can-do mentality of the people, especially in the north.”

Ultimately, though, Patterson offered an upgrade when the academy graduate was recalled at the start of this year.

In Patterson’s 23 League One starts during the 2021/22 campaign, he conceded 20 goals, while Hoffmann was beaten 31 times while making the same number of appearances.

That, it should be pointed out, was partly due to Sunderland’s defensive improvements under Alex Neil.

The side’s expected goals against average was 1.3 goals per game (according to Wyscout) when Hoffmann was between the sticks in League One, while that figure dropped to 0.95 when Patterson was selected.

Still, while he faced fewer shots, Patterson did record a higher save percentage of 73.49% - compared to Hoffmann’s 68.04 %.

One area which attracted particular attention at the start of the campaign was Hoffmann’s distribution and passing skills, with the Black Cats keen to try and play out from the back under Johnson.

The stats do show the German was more likely to receive the ball to feet, averaging 21.77 passes per match with a 91.4% accuracy score.

That is higher than Patterson, who has averaged 17.54 passes per match, with 89.3% accuracy, yet interestingly the latter fared better when it came to the more challenging long passes.

While Patterson averaged 6.56 long passes per game with a 73.3% accuracy score, Hoffmann attempted 5.08 long passes per match with 70.% of them finding a Sunderland team-mate.

The move may not have worked out long term, then, yet as Hoffmann put it “this ‘crazy’ club has finally achieved promotion.”

"From now on I will support the club on their way back to the top.”