Starting: How the Lads line-up...📝#SAFC #HawayTheLads pic.twitter.com/hJnFBBiyXb— Sunderland AFC (@SunderlandAFC) September 1, 2018
Missed this last week, but Gooch was shortlisted for League One player of the month in September. (He didn't end up winning, tho.)
From his local paper: https://www.sunderlandecho.com/spor...al-aims-and-his-love-for-sunderland-1-9361630 Which is really just a rehash of the ASN interview. Go figure.
Started today.... SCORED!!!! Sunderland's 2nd goal Sunderland currently lead 3 - 0 over Rochdale - in League One play Just coming up on half-time
SCORES!!! Make that a pair of goals as Lyndon buries another at 68 minute mark Sunderland lead 4 - 1 in the 75th minute
Hell yea Gooch... love seeing dudes I’ve been following since the U20s get better. That determination and hard work paying off. He won’t have a shortage of suitors in the Championship if keeps this up. There’s a lot more wingers this cycle that’s for sure
Who's your @UKASL Man of the Match? 🤔#SAFC #HawayTheLads— Sunderland AFC (@SunderlandAFC) September 22, 2018
He's playing with a ton of confidence. Could definitely see him battle out for a starting spot or supersub role for the USMNT soon. He's that good and also cuz our wing options are terrible
The crazy thing was he'd had a couple of quiet games and there were a few (a very few, to be fair) on the Sunderland message boards claiming he'd been "found out." They've been silent the last couple days.
Just to keep it fair and balanced: is he too good for League 1 or has he just found his level? 3 goals in 9 league games? 24 games last season and 1 goal. He might just flourish here, but I'm not sure that establishes him as a lock to flourish in the league above.
Gooch had a goal and 3 primary assists in 12 games worth of minutes in the '17-'18 C-ship season. That's not bad at all for a 20 y/o on a wretched team. His WS, assists, and goals in the 8 C'ship games when he started at fwd, a-mid, and right mid; 7.2 goal forward 7.3 assist amid 7.2 right mid 7.6 right mid 5.9 right mid---a teammate suffered a red in the 49th minute. 7.1 right mid 7.8 right mid 7.1 right mid That's quite promising, actually.
Nope. He's found his floor; starting XI for a League 1 automatic promotion challenger with historic expectations of then challenging for promotion to the EPL in the next two seasons. The question is what his ceiling is. Is it retaining that first XI status in the Championship promotion challenge and into the EPL, or will he be let go as soon as they consolidate in the Championship/get promoted to the EPL? As @IndividualEleven pointed out, his individual performances were pretty good in the Championship but the team was absolute garbage and the club was hopelessly adrift. This season he has a new manager, with the squad purged of nearly all of the infamous Tuesday Club. Maybe he won't flourish in the Championship, but there's no reason to think that at the moment.
I would say that many S'land fans would not completely agree with his performance last season being pretty good. The question is would he rather toil in obscurity in the Championship as a cog in an engine with no horsepower, or be the star of a contender? The level of the Championship has not changed, and he did not stand out among a squad full of really average players. I guess we'll see next year. Happy to eat my words if he proves me wrong!
Injury update: 🇺🇸 ROSS ON GOOCH: "We think @lyndengooch46 will be reasonably short-term. He had a similar injury last year, but he was only out for 9-12 days." pic.twitter.com/Vt56YFrmXd— Sunderland AFC (@SunderlandAFC) October 1, 2018
Another update: Loovens was one of three players who picked up injuries at the Ricoh Arena, with young left-back Denver Hume having to go off due to a knee problem, while Lynden Gooch completed the final 20 minutes of the match while severely hampered by a hamstring issue, because Sunderland had already used all three subs. Gooch will miss this weekend's trip to Bradford City and Tuesday's Checkatrade Trophy game against Carlisle, but Ross expects him to return to training a week on Monday which means he may be in contention for the visit to Shrewsbury Town in a fortnight's time. https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/spo...nderland-glenn-loovens-injury-latest-15238706