With the Black Cats entering a crucial relegation battle clash against Eddie Howe’s Bournemouth at the weekend, all eyes will be on whether new signing Dame N’Doye will have a part to play. With striker Danny Graham completing his loan deal to championship side Blackburn Rovers this week and Fabio Borini’s future in doubt, the question marks will be whether Dame N’Doye deserves to be thrown straight into the starting line-up, in a fixture which has been called an absolute must win by Sunderland supporters throughout the week.
With Big Sam looking likely to stick with his favoured 4-2-3-1 formation, which he has started with in every game since the start of the year, it will be interesting to see which squad member has which part to play, after a cry out to go going back to basics with that 4-1 defeat at White Hart Lane last Saturday. The left side of the three forwards, behind the striker, looks the position which many players would be fighting for at the academy of light this week.
This includes the likes of Duncan Watmore, Fabio Borini, and also N’Doye, who will be hoping to impress the Sunderland crowd after the last debutant Jan Kirchhoff, had a Sunderland debut he would want to forget last week. But is N’Doye really capable of filling in that role which has been a concern the last few weeks? It started with Fabio Borini’s lack of flair against Aston villa, giving the ball away in unfamiliar territory which led to the Carles Gil’s leveller.
Then came last week’s defeat with the surprise conclusion of Danny Graham down that left-hand side, which had absolutely no effect on the Spurs defence at al,l with the likes of Jan Vertonghen and Kieron Trippier dealing comfortably with the long balls over the top to Graham. Big Sam must now decide whether his new striker playing down that left can not only provide creativity to Defoe but also chip in on the scoresheet. What Sunderland fans would certainly hope for is for N’Doye to have a better effect at the Stadium of light than what he had in his time at Hull city last season. Unfortunately, his 5 goals were not enough to keep The Tigers in the top flight. Big Sam is confident that the striker has the belief to make sure that lightening doesn’t strike twice, and his loan spell will be the final piece in the jigsaw to make sure Sunderland secure Premier league survival yet again.
