Sunderland have scored just the six league goals this season, four coming from Defoe.
Sunderland’s Jermain Defoe with Sunderland manager David Moyes
Sunderland manager David Moyes has said the service his side is trying to provide to their most threatening goalscorer in Jermain Defoe is not good enough, the Chronicle reports.
Defoe has scored four goals so far this season, but hasn’t found the net since the 3-2 defeat to Crystal Palace last month, and the goals for the side as a whole have dried up.
Moyes feels that his side can provide better service – and that others need to provide a threat as well as the side mixing things up in the final third.
Sunderland manager David Moyes
The Sunderland boss is quoted in the Chronicle, saying: “We’ve got a terrible habit of trying to hit Jermain all the time over the top, and it’s not good enough just to try to do that.
“It’s not that we should never do that, just that it is not leading to enough goals for us.”
“We still seem to feel that all we can do is hit Jermain Defoe over the top with one ball, we don’t cross the ball enough, we don’t get enough people forward, we don’t pass the ball enough.”
Sunderland’s Jermain Defoe in action with West Ham United’s Edimilson Fernandes
If they are only doing one thing to try and score goals then Sunderland are going to be utterly predictable for the opposition to face – which is probably why they have only scored the six goals in the league so far this season.
They need to provide more service to him in different ways, but they need contributions from all areas of the field. Defenders need to be a threat from set-pieces, midfielders need to make runs into the box to support the forward line, and add a bit more a threat.
It’s clearly a worry for Moyes, and it’s one big area that needs to be addressed if his side are to get out of trouble.
Sunderland manager David Moyes before the match
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