Former Sunderland striker Kevin Phillips has issued a warning to Charlie Wyke over the striker’s lack of goals for the Black Cats recently, and suggested that he could be needing to improve his form to keep his place in the side.

Sunderland have managed to transform their form since the turn of the year, with Phil Parkinson’s side suffering just one defeat in their last 13 League One matches, to put themselves firmly back amongst the sides fighting it out for automatic promotion to the Championship this term.

However, despite the Black Cats’ upturn in form, one player who has been struggling recently in front of goal is Wyke, with the striker having only managed to register four league goals in 23 appearances so far this term, and having failed to find the net in any of his last four matches.

QUIZ: How much do you know about Sunderland’s January signings?

Speaking to the Football Insider, Phillips suggested that although Sunderland might be in a positive run of form, they are going to need to start seeing more of an end product from Wyke, if the 27-year-old is going to justify keeping his place in the side.

He said: "You want your strikers scoring goals regularly.

"He has got Lafferty who can come in and work alongside him and with his experience, you would expect him to get goals before now and the end of the season.

"There is always going to be a spell at a club where your main striker is going to go three, four, five games without a goal. You have to hope one of your centre-halves gets one, a midfielder chips in with a couple.

"At the moment I am not worried because we are getting away with it but you do not want him to be having this conversation in four weeks’ time. At home to Bristol Rovers this weekend so you would like to think he has an opportunity to get a goal there."

The verdict

Phillips is right that Sunderland are in need of seeing some more end product from Wyke in the final third, with the Black Cats at the moment relying on their excellent recent defensive record, and the goals from the likes of Chris Maguire and Lynden Gooch to help them keep their positive run of form going.

There will come a match, though, where Sunderland will be needing their main centre forward to get them a goal during a crucial stage in the game to help them secure a positive result, but at the moment Wyke’s form suggests it could be a big ask to rely on him to be the player to make the difference.

Parkinson has shown that he is wanting to stick by the striker and give him time to play his way back into form, which has of course been made a lot easier by the Black Cats continuing to find different sources of goals to secure three points on a regular basis.

However, if Sunderland are going to be able to achieve automatic promotion, then they could be needing Wyke to either find some form, or drop out of the side for a couple of games, and that means the 27-year-old is under pressure to end his recent goalless run.