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We've crowned another player of the month and this month's winner is Fabio Borini. It's difficult to say that he's been the best this month, more the least rubbish.
The month encapsulated the high's and lows of supporting Sunderland, including the Capital One Cup Final and the awful defeat against Norwich. With the Cup Final aside, the results and performances have been way below par, which is reflected in the average scores below.
Borini is the best of the bunch though, mainly on account of a stunning performance in the Cup Final coupled with a decent outing against Crystal Palace.
Here's what some of the Roker Report team made of this month and Borini's performances;
Michael Graham: I've really grown to love Fabio Borini or, to give him his full name, PLAY FABIO BORINI DOWN THE MIDDLE MAN FFS MAN GUS MAN!! Superb work ethic and a real dash of quality in there too. He seems to be one of these players who both fuel off and feed the passion of the fans. First name on the team sheet for me these days.
Nick Holden: Fabio's goal in the final gave me perhaps one of the best moments of my entire life and left me physically shaking with excess adrenaline for the rest of the half (finally managed to use that energy up in gulping down one of the dodgy-looking £20 hot dogs at the break). Just for that he deserves to be Player of the Month, as well as Player of my Heart.
And here's how everyone scored for the month;
| Player Name | Average Score | Difference From Previous Month |
Season Total |
| Fabio Borini | 6.4 | -1.17 | 196 |
| Wes Brown | 6.25 | -0.55 | 149 |
| Marcos Alonso | 6.25 | -1.08 | 81 |
| Ki Sung-Yeung | 6.2 | -1.0 | 217 |
| Vito Mannone | 6.2 | -2.6 | 186 |
| Lee Cattermole | 6.0 | -1.75 | 160 |
| Oscar Ustari | 6.0 | 0.0 | 18 |
| John O'Shea | 5.66 | -2.17 | 217 |
| Adam Johnson | 5.5 | -2.1 | 224 |
| Craig Gardner | 5.5 | -2.0 | 122 |
| Phil Bardsley | 5.5 | -1.5 | 81 |
| Liam Bridcutt | 5.5 | -3.0 | 39 |
| Seb Larsson | 5.0 | -1.4 | 190 |
| Emanuele Giaccherini | 5.0 | -1.5 | 157 |
| Andrea Dossena | 5.0 | -1.0 | 50 |
| Connor Wickham | 5.0 | +0.5 | 49 |
| Jack Colback | 4.4 | -2.32 | 198 |
| Jozy Altidore | 4.25 | -2.91 | 168 |
| Nacho Scocco | 3.75 | -2.25 | 21 |
| Steven Fletcher | 3.33 | -3.67 | 135 |
| Santiago Vergini | 3.0 | -3.0 | 27 |
So it's pretty evident that nobody has had a great month. The scores are considerably lower than last month however looking back we were perhaps a bit generous with the cup exploits and a win over Newcastle during that period.
The game against Liverpool provides some hope however moving forward, and speaking of forwards, it's even more apparent that on current form Fabio Borini has to lead the line for us following a triumphant month.