Why Chris Maguire is key to Jack Ross keeping his Sunderland job

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Jack Ross needs to get the best out of Chris Maguire if Sunderland are to end their League One purgatory.

It doesn’t take a genius, or a highly-paid football manager, to realise where Sunderland are going wrong right now.

But, with just two points from two games to start the 2019/20 campaign, after a staggering 19 draws across last season, it seems that the increasingly under-fire Jack Ross is no closer to harnessing the potential of this talented Black Cats squad.

And the pressure is rising.

If a dismal performance in an opening day stalemate with Oxford United showed a lack of progress despite a summer of alleged fine-tuning, a horrifying opening 45’ against Ipswich Town on Portman Road had supporters once again scratching their heads and bellowing in frustration at their Belshill-born coach.

Not just because Ross remains reluctant to move away from a 3-5-2 system which fails to get the best out of the players at his disposal, but because Chris Maguire was once again left on the bench.

Alongside Aiden McGeady, Maguire is one of the few players in Sunderland’s squad capable of taking the game by the scruff of the neck and changing things in an instant with a sublime pass or a rocket of a shot.

Maguire produced nine goals and seven assists for Sunderland last season, scoring that stunning winner in the play-off semi-finals against Portsmouth, but he played just eight minutes against Oxford despite the Black Cats’ galling lack of cutting edge.

And it is no coincidence that his introduction at half-time at Portman Road gave Sunderland some much-needed impetus, pace and thrust in the final third. The North East giants were simply a far better, far more threatening team with Maguire on the pitch.

So the fans can only hope and pray that Ross has learned his lesson. If he wants to put an end to the drab deadlocks and endless supply of 1-1 draws, he simply has to unleash Maguire upon unsuspecting League One defences.

In fact, getting the best out of this enigmatic attacker could be the difference between Ross keeping his job and losing it. Sometimes football really is that simple.