Three Sunderland players who must improve from their early-season performances

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Sunderland got back to winning ways with a 4-1 win over Rochdale last weekend.

Sunderland have made a good start to life in League One; a division they had not been in for 30 years prior to this season.

Jack Ross’s side have lost just once – a 2-1 win away to Burton Albion – but the Black Cats soon got back to winning ways, hammering Rochdale 4-1 last weekend.

Despite many of their players having impressed, including youngster Josh Maja and winger Chris Maguire, not all the Wearside team have been great and three key members of their squad must improve.

Adam Matthews

Welsh full-back Matthews started the season reasonably well but, after a slack performance against Fleetwood Town at the start of September, which saw the defender also give away a penalty, he has been extremely poor.

Matthews’ slump in form was recognised by his manager and Ross dropped the 26-year-old for Sunderland’s match against Swansea City. However, with the hectic League One schedule heating up, Matthews will still play his part this season and will need to brush up on his obvious weaknesses.

Jerome Sinclair

Sinclair moved to Sunderland on loan from Watford this summer and, despite some injury woes, the striker has failed to capture the imagination of the Wearside faithful so far this term.

The 22-year-old clearly has pace and flair, shown in his recent appearances from the bench, but the Birmingham-born player is clearly in need of a goal to ignite his season.

Dylan McGeouch

Scottish midfielder McGeouch arrived in the North-East with expectation weighing on his shoulders, especially after an impressive pre-season in Sunderland colours.

The former Hibernian man got his chance to shine for Sunderland after recovering from injury. But McGeouch has seemingly struggled with the frenetic pace of League One, with somewhat sluggish displays in recent matches.

The Scot will have a task on his hands to keep the returning Max Power out of the side and will need to improve if he gets another chance against Coventry City this weekend.