Tony Mowbray Reveals How Sunderland Brilliant Star Has Proven Him Wrong – And How He Can Get Even Better
Sunderland winger Jack Clarke has continued his superb start to the Championship campaign
Tony Mowbray admits Jack Clarke’s sensational goalscoring form has taken him by surprise this season, and the Sunderland head coach has revealed he is working closely with the winger to improve his output further.
Clarke’s goal against Norwich City on Saturday sealed a 3-1 win for the Black Cats, and took the winger’s total for the campaign to nine.
Mowbray thought Clarke would struggle to match his tally of eleven from last season, one of the reasons why he was concerned about his side’s goalscoring capacity through the pre-season period. While Clarke’s output has clearly been boosted by taking the club’s penalties, he has been successful with all four of his attempts so far and three of those he won himself.
The 22-year-old has kicked on again following Burnley’s interest in the summer transfer window and Mowbray is braced for more top-tier interest in January, but feels there is still more to come.
“His consistency is really good,” Mowbray said after the Norwich win.
“On the back of last year, we talked about this in the summer, you’ve got to score 70-odd goals if you want to make the play-offs. Who is going to score them? Amad was gone, our top scorer. Ross eventually moved on. Where were those goals coming from? Genuinely, I didn’t think Jack would get near his goal contribution from last season and yet he’s already at 9. He’s done amazingly well.
“He’s a young boy who got sold to Tottenham for £10 million and so the talent is obviously there,” Mowbray added. “He’s got a lovely personality, he’s got opinions on football and he does listen. He can’t not, to be fair, when he’s stood right in front of me on the touchline when I’m screaming at him. It’s amazing how tight he keeps the ball to that right foot when he cuts inside, and then straightens up again.
“One of the things I’ve been talking to Jack about is hitting it without backswing, if you think of the great Thierry Henry and people like that, there was no backlift as they almost passed it into that far corner. A lot of Jack’s shots get blocked and I’m working with him to try and get it so it is almost shooting without breaking stride, because I was a defender and if you see the wind up, you can anticipate the shot and lunge and block. I’m hoping we can develop that with Jack over the coming season and there’ll be a lot more of him coming inside, threatening to shoot and without a backlift – passing it into the far corner. He’s a wonderful talent.
“We had big bids for Jack in the last window and we’ll have to see what is coming in the next window, and see what the club’s thought patterns are moving forward.
“I hope he enjoys his football here and hopefully the club does everything they can to ensure he stays here and helps us have a successful season.”
Sunderland are back in action away at Swansea City this weekend.
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