Leeds United loanee Joe Gelhardt has been told he must start to adapt his style to accommodate his teammates at Sunderland if he wants to start scoring goals.
The 20-year-old missed another big chance to find his second goal for the club in Sunday afternoon's 1-0 win against Norwich having found the net just once in his eight appearances for Sunderland so far.
Gelhardt is the Black Cats only out-and-out striker after regular starter Ross Stewart was ruled out for the rest of the season with an Achilles injury but former Premier League striker Robert Earnshaw believes the youngster is struggling because he's yet to figure out what kind of player he wants to be.
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"Well number one thing is that you [the player] must change first, you must adapt, move, get better and improve," Earnshaw said on Sky Sports. "I was here at Norwich a long time ago but I was the lone striker.
"And then thing I figured out through the first few games was, 'Ok, how can I make things easier for me?' and I adapted and changed my style and the biggest thing was movement.
"I realised I had two high-flying wingers next to me and they're not going to play me in the air so my movement is the key. He's a young player, and I look at him and he's trying to figure himself out.
"Movement is key for goals, your movement must be efficient. That's how you do your job for the team and he's struggling at the moment with what he is [as a player] and that's very difficult.
"At the end of the day, he's 20 years old so he must realise what's best for the team, obviously scoring goals but number two is movement - adapt, and add to the team's overall work ethic as well."
"I think that's fair to say [that he's struggled], but we have to be careful because he's a completely different type of profile to Ross Stewart," fellow pundit Jobi McAnuff chimed in.
"He wants to come in, link up the play and I think he could use a little more freedom at times. I think he'd actually be very good alongside Ross Stewart, to have him as a central attacking option, and play off of him. Ross Stewart, a lot of his touches are in central areas but Gelhardt is back here at the halfway line.
"I think he still needs to have that threat going forward though, in that attacking third and giving them an attacking outlet because that's what they've been missing, what they've really struggled with."
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