Sunderland are enjoying a wonderful season so far, but there's plenty of work yet to do.

Sunday's victory in the Papa John's Trophy final may not be crucial in the club's rise through the divisions but there's little doubt that it will have sent a real signal of intent that the club mean business.

Lee Johnson's side are firmly in the mix for promotion and despite sitting in fourth spot at the moment they're the in-form side in the division and closing in on the automatic places quickly.

One player who has been crucial to that success this season has been Charlie Wyke.

With that in mind we took to Wyscout to take a look at his statistics from this season to see exactly why he's so important to the Black Cats.

Charlie Wyke has been nothing short of a revelation this season.

After two poor campaigns with Sunderland the striker certainly never looked like he was gearing up for a season like this but based on his statistics there's no doubt that he's one of the top attackers in League One.

The 28-year-old has made 39 appearances in all competitions already this term and scored 25 goals in the process.

What's most notable is that 17 of those goals have come since Lee Johnson took charge of the club in early December, showing just how key the new head coach has been in his upturn in form.

But if you delve a little bit deeper you can see exactly why his overall contribution so crucial.

Wyke has also contributed four assists to the team and won a rather impressive 45% of his aerial duels - an area of his game where he's really thrived, particularly in front of goal.

It's his potency in front of goal that is most impressive though.

 

 

The striker has hit 55.8% of his efforts on target this season which shows why his conversion rate is so high.

In fact, his ability to find the net is actually better than it should be, according to the statistics.

Wyke's expected goals, which is calculated based on a number of stats such as shots on goal and difficult of the opportunity says that the striker should have scored between 17 and 18 goals at this stage of the season, meaning that the targetman is way ahead of target with 25 on the board already.

On current for it seems very likely that Wyke will exceed the 30-goal mark and Sunderland fans will be hoping that those goals can be what guide the club back to the Championship.

Wyke is absolutely vital to Lee Johnson's side and so it's essential that the Black Cats are able to sustain his form and fitness during the rest of the season.