By Tony Mowbray’s own admission, Jack Clarke has a tendency to flit from the awesome to the anonymous. The Sunderland winger was more of the former than the latter on Tuesday night however, the Black Cats giving their play-off prospects a major boost with an eye-catching 3-0 win away from home at Queens Park Rangers.
Before sealing a permanent switch to Wearside last summer, the former Tottenham Hotspur benchwarmer had scored just three senior goals. Two of those coming during his breakthrough Leeds United season under Marcelo Bielsa back in 2018/19.
A lethal second-half brace at Loftus Road, however, took his tally to eight in all competitions this term. Add that to his seven assists and you’ve got a player, at the age of 22, for whom the penny has well and truly dropped.
Former Tottenham winger Jack Clarke in fearsome Sunderland form
“Jack was part of the changed formation really,” Mowbray explains, Clarke thriving in a more central role at QPR.
“We didn’t ask him to play wide and hug the touchline. We asked him to play off the shoulder of the centre-half, and try and utilise the space behind them. He can be very frustrating sometimes, Jack Clarke, but I suppose most wide wingers can. And yet (he scored twice). So happy for him.
“He does work hard, he does ask lots of questions, he does want to know the answers to why he’s doing this or why we should play there. Hopefully the answers are there in front of him.”
After making just four appearances for Tottenham – totalling 95 minutes of action – Clarke joined Championship dark-horses Sunderland for a fee that, presuming a series of add-ons and bonuses are met, could eventually reach £10 million.
There was certainly a touch of irony in the fact that, while Clarke was putting QPR to the sword, his old employers were struggling to break down an AC Milan side who had recently conceded 12 goals in the space of just three games; failing to create a chance of note in their 1-0 Champions League last-16 first-leg defeat at the San Siro.
With Dejan Kulusevski, Richarlison and Heung Min-Son a shadow of their former selves, the embattled Antonio Conte could only dream of an attacker producing the sort of displays Clarke is becoming increasingly renowned for, week-in, week-out.
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