Source: Northern_Echo
Bruce refuses to bow to pressure to pair Bent and Gyan
DESPITE having a £13m striker on the bench, Sunderland manager Steve Bruce will not bow to demands from fans and partner Asamoah Gyan with Darren Bent - yet.[LNB] Gyan is yet to start a league game for the Black Cats since his record-breaking move from French side Rennes in August, with Bruce tending to name Bent as his lone frontman.[LNB] Successive goalless draws and an over-reliance on Bent to score Sunderland's goals have led to a clamour for the Ghanaian to start.[LNB] However, Bruce insists he will not hand Gyan a first start just because many of the supporters want him to.[LNB] Instead he will go with his judgement, meaning Bent is likely to be on his own through the middle again against Aston Villa today.[LNB] Pressure is the one thing you can't buckle under in management, said the Sunderland boss. I brought Asamoah in because he is a very good player.[LNB] We had lost Fraizer Campbell and of course if Benty's groin had left him out for a month or six weeks where would that have left us But the team has played very, very well and the team always comes before the individual.[LNB] That is all I am concerned about.[LNB] You could say we have paid £13m for him and he is sitting on the bench but the other day I had a £9m keeper and four World Cup quarter-finalists there too. What do you do[LNB] Bruce's mentality is one of why change something that isn't broken, meaning Craig Gordon will find himself among the substitutes again today with Belgian Simon Mignolet in good form.[LNB] He feels that defensively Sunderland are in decent shape, but he is desperate to see his team find goals from other areas. Other than Bent, Gyan's only Premier League strike and a Stephen Carr own goal are the only way Sunderland have scored in the league this season.[LNB] Bruce, who is particularly looking for improvements from midfield, said: Ahmed Elmohamady has always chipped in with a goal, Jordan Henderson has scored for England Under-21s and we know he can do it for us. Lee Cattermole, maybe not. Steed has not scored for two years, which you do scratch your head about.[LNB] Danny Welbeck is only young and has only been at the club for a few games. He is a striker. We do need goals from these players.[LNB] I hope there are goals there. Jordan looks like the type who can score ten a season eventually when he learns about arriving in the box and gets that little bit of know how. I watch him do it in training so I know he is capable of it.[LNB] We were too brittle defensively last season, this season we need to find goals from somewhere, that has been our Achilles heel.[LNB]
