It was a rarity for Sunderland in 2024 when Patrick Roberts came off the bench with 24 minutes remaining of the 0-0 draw with Bristol City, for it was just the fourth time this year both he and Jack Clarke were on the field together.
Two of Sunderland’s biggest weapons within their armoury and both have been hit with injuries since the turn of the year; Roberts having endured a season torment as far as trips to the physios room are concerned, with Clarke returning to Mike Dodds’ starting line-up for the first time since mid-February after suffering an ankle ligament injury in the defeat to Birmingham City at St. Andrew’s.
Dodds, during this interim spell in charge, has been adamant not to use the absence of the likes of Roberts and Clarke, as well as others in defence such as Dennis Cirkin, Niall Huggins and Aji Alese, as excuses as to why Sunderland have now won just one of their last 10 Championship games following this draw with Liam Manning’s Bristol. And yet there’s no doubting Roberts and, particularly, Clarke have been huge misses for Sunderland – Clarke having contributed towards 19 of the club’s 51 total goals this season.
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Although this 24-minute cameo of having both back on the pitch together against Bristol City failed to yield a winning goal, it did feel more was right in the world at the Stadium of Light than has been over the course of the last eight weeks since Dodds replaced Michael Beale.
Roberts’ season remains something of an anomaly, however, with the 27-year-old contributing just two assists in 27 appearances, having started 20 of Sunderland’s 41 games to date. Roberts is ranked 10th in Sunderland’s squad for minutes played ahead of the final five games of the season, having ranked sixth with 2,644 minutes last season (42 appearances including 29 starts). Within that, Roberts scored five and assisted seven times which helped establish himself as a key component of Sunderland’s fluid attack along with Clarke and Manchester United loanee Amad Diallo.
Having signed a new contract on Wearside until 2026 in November, the hope was that Roberts would advance his game further this season – something which has failed to materialise owing to successive hamstring injuries which have stifled his momentum.
After making just three appearances in 2024 under Beale, Roberts made his return in Easter Monday’s debacle against Blackburn Rovers but looked some way short of being up to full match fitness with interim head coach Dodds revealing the winger had conceded his levels were below expectations – like most in a red and white shirt.
But Dodds has elaborated on Roberts’ challenges this season and highlighted how significant the club’s pre-season schedule will be for the winger to get back up to speed ahead of what is hoped will be a much-improved 2024-25 campaign.
“I didn’t think Pat was great against Blackburn, and that’s not a pop at him – I could name a lot of players who weren’t. We had a really honest conversation about that and Pat showed real maturity in terms of an admission on his behalf that he was completely below par,” Dodds explained to We Are Sunderland.
“Pat, for me, his ability is Premier League standard. That is without question. Similar to a Pierre [Ekwah], Pat isn’t going to like me at times because I probably need to put some stronger boundaries in place to hopefully get the best out of him.
“Now it’s unfortunate we’ve only got five games left and when I took over the team, if I had a fully fit Patrick Roberts, I’m sure the results would have looked completely different. But we had a really honest conversation about pre-season and Pat has got to really knuckle down in pre-season.
“He should be a pillar for this football club to take us back to the Premier League and for whatever reason this year [it hasn’t happened].
“He’s told me some stuff that will obviously remain private between us two, but by his own admission he hasn’t hit the standards that he hit last year. I expect a really big pre-season from Pat and, I won’t say new and improved, but I expect a Patrick Roberts that should be playing in the Premier League next season.”
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Roberts’ return to both form and fitness is likely to be integral to Sunderland and whoever their new head coach may be next season, even more so should Clarke’s time with the club fail to go beyond the remaining five games of the Championship season.
Clarke completed the full 90-minutes against Bristol City and gave a timely reminder as to what has been missing for Sunderland, and Dodds, in recent weeks. Clarke’s presence alarmed defenders with the winger drawing multiple players into his area of the field, creating space for the likes of Jobe Bellingham, Adil Aouchiche and Chris Rigg – again something Sunderland have missed.
Clarke tops out when it comes to stats such as progressive carries in the Championship and it was easy to see why as he drove Sunderland up the field, completing six of his seven dribbles, and was responsible for 12 of Sunderland’s 20 attempts at goal having created six chances for his team-mates while having six shots at goal himself. But for an inspired display by goalkeeper Max O’Leary, Clarke would have added to his goals and assists tally for the season, that despite tiring in the second half according to Dodds.
“In terms of Jack Clarke, he’s really robust,” Dodds told We Are Sunderland. “I didn’t want to play him for the full 90-minutes. I wanted to see how he felt, but he’s just so robust, he’s got such an engine on him. Don’t get me wrong, I think he tired, but I think a lot of our players tired, and a lot of Bristol’s players looked really, really tired and the game just kind of petered out a little bit.
“But to have him back in the dressing room is a huge psychological boost for the group because I’ve had four or five games where it’s just been really difficult to try and get any kind of momentum because sometimes, when you miss players of that quality, it’s not just Sunderland who are going to miss those players, any club in the Championship would miss that quality.
“You’ve [also] got Aji who hasn’t featured much this year, Dennis Cirkin who I think is a wonderful footballer at this level – there’s load of potential positives at this football club but, for whatever reason this year, we’ve had a lot of injuries and things that haven’t particularly gone our way. That’s not an excuse, but when we get those guys back, the whole dynamic of the squad is going to look a lot brighter.”
Sunderland’s season has unravelled beyond the inconsistencies of Roberts and the recent injury of Clarke but having both in full-flight and in tandem with one another undoubtedly makes Sunderland a stronger proposition. The problem for Sunderland is they may only get five more games to experience it.
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