Amid frustrations at Sunderland, Tony Mowbray makes a point about Burnley

Speaking to the Sunderland Echo, Tony Mowbray noted that his team’s Sunderland is only three points behind Burnley’s position at this point in the previous campaign.

After a mediocre start, the Clarets went on to win the Championship; Vincent Kompany needed some time to get his team in shape at the beginning of the previous season.

The Lancashire team needed multiple additions after a number of players, including Nick Pope, Nathan Collins, Dwight McNeil, and Max Cornet, left Turf Moor.

Since many of these additions were from outside the country, Kompany faced additional difficulties in making sure his new hires adapted quickly.

Fortunately for the former captain of Manchester City, players like Manuel Benson and Anass Zaroury had their moments, and the Clarets finished the league season with a massive 101 points—just five points short of Reading’s record of 106 points.

Although their promotion was expected given that they were able to hold onto some excellent players, such as Josh Brownhill, their point total was impressive and they will now need to maintain their current position in the Premier League.

How are Sunderland getting on this season?

When it came to off-field events, the Black Cats’ start to the previous season wasn’t the best either. A few weeks into the new season, Alex Neil decided to join Stoke City.

Fortunately for Wearside, under current manager Tony Mowbray, Neil’s successor, the team was able to improve on the 2021/22 campaign and reach new heights.

Despite finishing in the play-offs and suffering a heartbreaking 3-2 loss to Luton Town in the semi-finals, they will be optimistic about their chances of advancing once more after keeping Jack Clarke and adding a lot of players to their roster during the summer transfer window.

They have performed fairly well this term and are now ranked tenth in the table, but given that they were previously in the play-offs, they will be dissatisfied with their current standing.

Following back-to-back losses to Leicester City, Stoke, and Middlesbrough, the Black Cats were knocked into tenth place.

What did Tony Mowbray say about Burnley in relation to Sunderland?

Supporters of the Black Cats will be furious after these three losses, but Mowbray is calm and has used the Clarets to put things in perspective.

“We shouldn’t be too upset because we only have three points less than Burnley did at this point in the previous season,” he stated.

We trail third place in the league by three points. This season has seen a lot of positive things happen, as well as some obvious areas for improvement, but that’s football.

“I have every confidence that we’ll be included come May. Even though we won’t be close to Leicester City, we’ll be competitive for the position we need to be in.”

Should Sunderland’s supporters be patient?

Given how well the Black Cats have performed this season, the vast majority of supporters will undoubtedly still be behind Mowbray.

It will take time for the Wearside club to get into shape, given that they added a number of players in the summer and lost some excellent attackers in Amad Diallo and Ross Stewart.

However, they have performed admirably on occasion this term and have recently had three challenging assignments.

It’s hard to be too critical of these losses because Stoke were desperate for points and it was always going to be tough against Boro after Dan Neil was sent off.