Sunderland travel to the Vitality this afternoon to take on Bournemouth in the Premier League, and they will be without several of their key players for the match.
Regis Le Bris will be without Nordi Mukiele, Romaine Mundle, Jocelin Ta Bi, and Brian Brobbey, as all four players are injured and will all miss between two and four weeks, possibly longer for Mundle and Ta Bi.
Brobbey being out of action for up to a month is a significant blow for the Black Cats because he has been the French head coach's first-choice option in the centre-forward position.
brian-brobbey-sunderland
The Black Cats splashed out a fee of £17.3m to sign the Dutchman from Ajax in the summer of 2025, after their promotion to the Premier League, and he has not disappointed.
In fact, his performances at the top end of the pitch for the newly-promoted side have put some of the other big-money striker signings in the league to shame.
How Brobbey compares to other Premier League striker signings
Brobbey did not even rank within the top ten for the most expensive centre-forward signings in the Premier League last summer, as the likes of Liam Delap, Viktor Gyokeres, Hugo Ekitike, and Nick Woltemade, among many others, were signed for more money.
Gyokeres-Arsenal
Liverpool paid £125m for Alexander Isak, Newcastle paid £69m for Woltemade and £55m for Yoane Wissa, and Manchester United paid £66.4m for Benjamin Sesko.
Brobbey has scored five goals from 2.63 xG in 13 starts in the Premier League for the Black Cats this season, whilst Isak and Wissa have combined for three goals in ten starts for Liverpool and Newcastle respectively.
Woltemade and Sesko, meanwhile, have both scored seven goals each in the top-flight. They both cost £49m or more than Brobbey for their respective clubs, and have scored just two more goals than the Dutchman.
He has not been quite as effective as Ekitike and Gyokeres, who have both scored ten goals each, but Sunderland can certainly be pleased with his output for the money they paid when compared to some of the expensive flops that were signed in the division last year.
Liverpool striker Hugo Ekitike
Le Bris' job now, though, is to find a way to replace Brobbey and his impact for the game against Bournemouth this afternoon, because the former Ajax star will not be available for the coming weeks.
The star Sunderland should replace Brobbey with
Wilson Isidor, who has scored four goals in the league, would be the obvious replacement for the Dutchman, but he has not scored in any of his last 17 Premier League outings.
Wilson-Isidor
After scoring three goals in his first six appearances this season, the former Zenit striker has only scored one goal in 21 top-flight outings for the Black Cats.
Le Bris could forget about Isidor by replacing Brobbey with Eliezer Mayenda, who has not started as a lone centre-forward since a 2-1 win over Brentford in August.
|Sunderland's results when Mayenda has started at CF|
|Game|Result|
|---|
|West Ham (H)|3-0 win|
|Burnley (A)|2-0 loss|
|Brentford (H)|2-1 win|
|Spurs (A)|1-1 draw|
|West Ham (A)|3-1 loss|
|Everton (FA Cup)|4-1 win on penalties|
Sunderland have won three and only lost two of the six games that the Spain U21 international has started as a centre-forward, winning three of the four games that he has started as a lone striker.
The Spanish ace, who journalist Josh Bunting claimed is "consistently improving", also scored one goal and provided one assist in those four starts as the main number nine, which is a respectable return.
Mayenda is an interesting option up front for Sunderland because he is more of a dynamic forward than a traditional number nine like Isidor and Brobbey, making him similar to a former Premier League forward for the club, Fabio Borini.
Like the Italian, who scored 17 goals in 93 games for the Black Cats, the Spanish attacker can play out wide on either flank or through the middle as a striker because of his explosive pace and brilliant movement off the last line.
fabio-borini-sunderland-premier-league
Mayenda, as was the case with Borini, is not going to hold the ball up and bully defenders in the same way that Brobbey does, but he could cause them problems in different ways.
The 20-year-old starlet, who scored eight goals and provided five assists in the Championship last season, could use his mobility and movement to constantly make runs in behind to stretch the defence and create chances for himself and others.
Le Bris, therefore, must unleash Sunderland's new Borini, as a dynamic and versatile forward who can pose an interesting challenge to the Cherries centre-backs, instead of going with the struggling Isidor to replace Brobbey.
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