Sunderland should make Max Stryjek their number one, despite signing Jon McLaughlin

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The Polish keeper played thirty minutes after coming on as a substitute against Darlington in a pre-season friendly.

Sunderland endured a Championship campaign full of goalkeeping errors and mishaps last term and they’ll certainly be hoping to put that behind them when they embark on League One next season.

The Black Cats showed the exit door to Jason Steele earlier this summer, as they brought in Scottish International Jon McLaughlin in a bid to ensure Sunderland don’t endure the same goalkeeping woes next term.

However, despite signing a very good stopper in McLaughlin, Sunderland boss Jack Ross should still make 21-year-old Polish goalkeeper Max Stryjek his number one in between the sticks.

It’s been three seasons since the Polish keeper made the move to Sunderland’s first team, but the 21-year-old has only made a handful of appearances on the Sunderland bench or in a domestic cup tie.

Although Stryjek is yet to make his professional league debut for the Black Cats, he has certainly shown great promise in Sunderland’s Under-23 squad and also in the thirty minutes he played against Darlington in a 1-0 defeat in their first pre-season friendly of this summer.

Stryjek made a number of excellent saves away at Blackwell Meadows and even kept a clean sheet when he came on for one of last season’s Championship flops in Robbin Ruiter.

The easy option for 42-year-old Ross would be to pick 30-year-old McLaughlin as his main man in goal next term, with the Scottish International having made over 300 club appearances in Scotland with a range of clubs and in England with Bradford City.

However, Stryjek certainly deserves his chance to prove he can cement his place as number one after three years of fine tuning his trade in the Sunderland ranks.

The former Polish youth International also offers youth and could be a player for the future, something that McLaughlin can’t offer the former St Mirren manager.

And if Ross does grant Stryjek with an opportunity of being the man to wear Sunderland’s number one goalkeeper shirt, the youngster will certainly have to grab it with both hands and look to emulate some of the great former goalkeepers Sunderland have previously had between the posts.