Nathan Broadhead offered an attacking threat on his return - and he will only get sharper the more games he plays, according to Alex Neil. On-loan Everton striker Broadhead had been sidlelined since before Christmas with a hamstring injury, but he made his comeback in Sunderland's goalless draw at Charlton Athetic yesterday.
The 23-year-old underwent his rehab work with Everton but was back training at the Academy of Light the week before last, and he did enough to convince Sunderland boss Neil that he was ready to start against the Addicks. Broadhead lasted 70 minutes before he was replaced by Jack Clarke, and in his time on the pitch he looked lively and Neil says there is plenty more to come from him in the League One run-in.
"He looked really sharp all week in training and that gave me the confidence to put him in," he said. "Broadhead was a threat, he will get sharper and he will get better."
"The biggest frustration was that, as the game wore on, we have got gaps in our squad so I didn't have another centre-forward to bring on for him so I ended up playing Jack Clarke up there, and he is a wide player."
Neil switched from the back four he used in last weekend's win at Wigan to a back three at Charlton, adopting a similar approach to the Londoners. Neil said: "We had the change of shape today because I had a rough idea that Jayden [Stockley] would play and he is a real handful, so you don't want to go two-for-two at the back because they were always going to play somebody mobile whether it was Conor Washington or a Jonathan Leko or a Mason Burstow off Jayden, and it only takes one flick.
"We compensated for that really well, and I thought our front three were a real threat."
Later in the game, Neil shifted system again. He said: "I changed it and went 4-3-3 and literally just left our three up the pitch and made it a game that was going to go end-to-end and see if they were brave enough to try and attack at that point, which they were and we had chances off the back of that in transition."
Sunderland created plenty of chances against Charlton but could not find a finish, with left wingback Dennis Cirkin coming closest in the second half when he saw a goalbound effort cleared off the line. The draw meant Sunderland dropped out of the play-off places, slipping one place to seventh, with ten games remaining.
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