David Moyes has been handed one of the most unenviable tasks in football – patching up Sunderland’s leaky dinghy, and keeping it afloat. Late transfer activity lifted the spirits, yet there are some pressing issues that need to be addressed.
T40’s scout peers out and into the free transfer market to bring you three names that’d go the distance in dispensing enough buoyancy to keep the Balck Cats and their nine lives intact.
Raul Meireles
Under David Moyes, it looks like the strategy is to batten down the hatches. With 4 defensive midfield options in Jan Kirchhoff, Lee Cattermole (out with inguinal hernia), Didier N’dong, and Jack Rodwell, and their sole creative force, Sebastian Larsson sidelined till February, next year, with a serious medial collateral ligament injury, desperately need some vision through the middle.
To provide that, could be the former Champions League winner with Chelsea, Raul Meireles. The 33-year-old hipster has a metronomic approach to his passages of play, and could change the tempo of a game at will, with an uncanny composure on the ball.
Kevin Kuranyi
The 34-year-old battering ram of a centre-forward could be the ideal David Moyes signing. A menace in the goal mouth with his sheer 6’3″ worth of physical presence and an eye for the thumping finish, and a diving header, he’d be the perfect focal point in attack, to hold the ball up in advanced areas in the dying embers of a match, to protect a point or three.
His movement remains sharp, even though he looks to be a few yards off the pace. The former German International’s knack for slipping in an occasional through ball, with his back to goal, could benefit the likes of Fabio Borini, Pienaar and Januzaj.
Emmanuel Adebayor
The Togolese has struggled without the limelight. The 32-year-old, once, was one of the most prolific strikers in the league, and ever since his financially-motivated move from Arsenal to Manchester City, his career has been on a downward spiral.
At Sunderland though, he would have the chance to take the centre-stage and grind it out, with the sole purpose of re-establishing himself as one of the leading lights of the Premier League. Not that he hasn’t scored goals even though his fortunes has been wallowing in the doldrums – since his escapades with Arsenal, in 147 appearances, he’s notched up 56 strikes, with a healthy goal per game ratio of 0.38.
On the face of it, he may be able to provide the sort of mobility and physicality as a centre-forward, that a David Moyes’ system relished with Louis Saha, Yakubu and then, Romelu Lukaku. And with Defoe beside him, could strike up the partnership he relished in his time at Tottenham.
