“Effortless” £15k-p/w Gem Was Sunderland’s Play-Off Hero

Sunderland secured their place within the prime six of the Championship in an exciting last day as they beat Preston North Finish, who had been additionally battling to make one of many coveted spots, 3-0 away from house.

The Black Cats head into the play-offs on a nine-game unbeaten run within the division and host Luton City on the Stadium of Mild within the first leg of their semi-final tie on Saturday.

Amad Diallo, Jack Clarke, and Alex Pritchard all discovered the again of the web at Deepdale to land the three factors and a sixth-placed end within the league.

Tony Mowbray’s gifted attacking group have performed some pleasurable soccer all through the marketing campaign and the contributions of the forwards have performed an enormous position of their success this season.

Amad has been on mortgage from Manchester United and caught the attention with a sequence of gorgeous performances – scoring 13 objectives and offering three assists in 37 Championship matches as an attacking midfielder.

Nonetheless, the Ivory Coast worldwide was not the true hero of Sunderland’s play-off cost as one among his attacking counterparts loved an arguably extra influential season – Jack Clarke.

How did Jack Clarke carry out this season?

The previous Tottenham Hotspur winger was sensational out on the left flank all year long and led the play-off push along with his means to alter and win matches along with his high quality on the ball.

Amad supplied an enormous aim risk however didn’t supply as a lot in the way in which of creativity for others and Clarke was capable of mix each side of the sport to make himself a nightmare for opposition defences.

The English dynamo ended the common season with 9 objectives and 11 assists throughout 45 video games, having missed only one outing, and because of this he was immediately concerned in 4 extra objectives than the United loanee.

He additionally created a whopping 77 possibilities and 7 ‘huge possibilities’ all through the marketing campaign compared to Amad’s 41 key passes and 4 ‘huge possibilities’ created.

Clarke, who averaged a Sofascore rating of 7.00 within the second tier, was beforehand described by ex-Premier League ahead Noel Whelan as “thrilling” and “easy” in the way in which he takes the ball previous opposition gamers, which is backed up by his two accomplished dribbles per recreation this time period – in comparison with his Ivorian teammate’s 1.7.

These statistics illustrate the impression that the £15k-per-week winger had in Mowbray’s group this season and highlights why he was the true hero of the play-off cost as no Black Cats player – together with Amad – was concerned in as many objectives because the attacker and his thrilling play out vast has been a pleasure to look at during the last 9 months.