Sunderland forward Marc McNulty has struggled for goals since arriving at the Stadium of Light in the summer.
Sunderland lost 3-0 Scunthorpe United in the EFL Trophy last night, in what was a humiliating defeat.
Sunderland never really posed much of a threat in the match, with McNulty struggling to make much of an impact up-front.
And Parkinson claims that Sunderland need to get a ‘real presence’ in attack, as they could not build a platform to hurt Scunthorpe with last night.
“We’ve got to stick together, get the players who are injured back quickly and put a team out that has got a real presence at the top of the pitch,” Parkinson said.
“That’s not being critical of Sparky [Marc McNulty] tonight, it was a tough ask for him, I thought he worked very, very hard and it nearly dropped for him a couple of times in that second half, but not quite.
“He needs some help up there and we need to help the team as well with getting some strength up there.”
McNulty only joined Sunderland in the summer, but he has found the going tough at the Stadium of Light.
The 27-year-old has just two league goals to his name in 11 appearances in League One.
Parkinson has rarely used McNulty as part of his starting line-up since taking charge, with the Sunderland forward having to make do with regular substitute appearances in the main so far.
And it is unlikely that his performance last night will have taken him any closer to Sunderland’s starting line-up, ahead of their next match, which is scheduled to come against Gillingham in the FA Cup.
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