Sunderland failed yet again to escape from the relegation zone as they went down by two goals to West Bromwich Albion last week. And while teams like Hull City and Swansea City have seen decent momentum from their new transfers and change in direction, the Black Cats haven’t had any such luxury yet.
David Moyes’ transfer plans have been reduced largely after the club revealed their ongoing financial crisis. Moyes has to deal mostly with free agents and loan players this season to survive relegation, as the club doesn’t have enough money even to maintain the prevalent wage structure.
Apart from facing Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City in their next five games that Moyes is unlikely to win, they have some decent fixtures against Crystal Palace and Southampton that Sunderland would fancy three points from. And the one department that Moyes needs real beefing up is their midfield.
Sunderland have managed to create only 146 chances in 22 games, which is 6.63 on average. And a lot of it is because of their less than average midfield. Sebastian Larsson looks clueless without the likes of Jan Kirchhoff and Didier Ndong, who are both absent currently owing to injury and AFCON respectively. It leaves Moyes with only one proper central midfield to hold the mast steady.
With only eight days to go before the January transfer window ends, Sunderland are desperate to bring in players to fill that void and according to reports, their latest target is Olympiakos midfielder Luka Milivojevic. The defensive midfielder has impressed hugely since moving to Greece from Belgium side Anderlecht in the summer of 2015.
And a lot of Premier League clubs are interested in him, the list including Hull City, Watford, Leicester City, West Ham United and Southampton to start with. The 25-year-old Serbian international is now a key member of the side and a regular in the Serbia national team.
Milivojevic has scored five goals in 16 Greek Super League games and is largely responsible for Olympiakos sitting at the summit of the table. A youth product of Serbian side FK Radnicki 1923 Kragujevac, he had played for Red Star and RSC Anderlecht before moving to Greece.
A defensive minded midfielder by nature, Milivojevic can also play as a centre-half and would suit well behind the likes of Borini, Januzaj and Defoe as well. However, Sunderland are not the only team lacking a good midfielder as Hull City, who just sold Jake Livermore to West Bromwich Albion, are also keeping tabs on him. Sunderland have to splash a good sum for him.
