Sunderland January striker call is yet to pay off: View | OneFootball

Sunderland have had their well-publicised issues in the striker department this campaign, with the Black Cats needing to address the significant issue over the summer.

The Mackems didn’t have a recognised forward find the back of the net in the Championship until Nazariy Rusyn’s strike on New Year’s Day against Preston North End; ending a run of a goal-shy 25 league matches from the club’s front-line.

With just 52 goals scored this season - 15 of those coming from the imperious Jack Clarke - the Wearsiders will be looking for more striking options over the summer, with the current forwards on the books at the moment struggling to make an impact.

One such example of a player failing to find his feet is that of Eliezer Mayenda, with the 18-year-old struggling to adapt to the professional game after his big breakthrough earlier this season.

Eliezer Mayenda Hibernian form is worrying for Sunderland future

With the current transfer strategy at the Stadium of Light as it is, Mayenda was one of a number of teenage talents to come through the doors last summer, after signing a five-year deal with the club after arriving from French club Sochaux.

The frontman had found the net once in 15 Ligue 2 appearances in the previous campaign, but had done enough to convince the powers-that-be in the North East that he was worthy of a move to the English second tier.

But after a hamstring injury scuppered his chances of being involved from the start of the season, Mayenda has so far failed to prove himself during his time at his new club, with just a handful of fleeting appearances before the turn of the year.

With 192 minutes of Championship football under his belt, the teenager was shipped out on loan to Scottish Premiership side Hibernian in the January transfer window, but it has been a similar story since making the move to Easter Road.

Four goalless appearances are all the striker has to show for his efforts north of the border so far, and the Spanish youth international is the first to recognise how hard it has been to adapt his game since his summer move.

Speaking to the Edinburgh Evening News about joining Sunderland last summer, Mayenda said: “Yeah, it was a difficult start.

“At Sunderland, we had a lot of new players coming in all at once. And there’s nothing easy in football. It’s not easy when you have so many new players in the team.

“But they are all really good players. All they need is patience. That is important in football.”

The managerial situation at Sunderland won’t be helping matters with all their new arrivals, with so much uncertainty over who will be calling the shots for the side month to month.

Tony Mowbray was given the boot in December after 15 months in charge before Michael Beale had an ill-fated 12-game stint at the helm either side of Christmas, with the former QPR boss losing six of his matches in the dugout.

Mike Dodds has been charged with taking care of matters at the Stadium of Light until the end of the season, before another manager will be given a chance in the hotseat, making it their fourth boss in 12 months.

That sort of uncertainty with those in power must be incredibly disconcerting for all players, let alone younger stars who are trying to make their way in the game, and Mayenda must be left wondering how his future will pan out as we head into the off-season.

Eliezer Mayenda needs to make the most of Hibernian loan spell ahead of next season

Despite failing to find the net on a regular basis, the Spaniard will be learning with every minute played in the pressure cooker environments of a professional football field, and the Black Cats will look to mine down on that experience in the coming years.

Mayenda was told by Beale to focus on training and developing during his loan spell, with the aim to learn as much as possible from being involved around first-team environments, and the Wearsiders will be hoping that early exposure will pay off in the future.

One thing is for sure though, Sunderland still have a striker issue to address heading into the following campaign, and with extra games and training under his belt Mayenda may be given more of a chance in the Championship in the following campaign than he was this year.

With rumours of Jack Clarke heading to the Premier League in the summer, more emphasis will be on the Black Cats’ squad to produce the goals that their teammate has often made single-handedly, and will be looking to their young recruits to step up to the mark.