Power Rankings: Sunderland’s in-form frontman returns to the top after his impressive brace

Welcome to the third edition of our revamped Power Rankings feature for the 2019-20 season.

Wedged in between the international break this week’s chart assesses Sunderland AFC players performances across our matches against: Peterborough United, Accrington Stanley and Rotherham United.

This poll is solely based on how our voters judged Black Cats performances in these three games and is not reflective of the entire season.

For every match a Sunderland player is given a score out of 50 based on their combined player rating score from that game.

As always, the player rating score uses both the ever controversial on-the-whistle Roker Report player ratings as well as individual ratings from our contributors.

This fortnight’s contributors were: @aidanscott16, @maxmason78 , @flaptingss , @EddieSAFCx, @1JonathanWalker and @JoeAStar.

Check out who finished where below.

Photo by Ian Horrocks/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images

Power Rankings

1: Marc McNulty (94 pts) (20) - Despite this being just the third edition of the new Power Rankings, McNulty is already a repeat champion. His goal-scoring efforts against Accrington and Rotherham combined with being one of the ‘better’ players at Peterborough earn him the top spot.

2: Lynden Gooch (92 pts) (2) - Incredibly, Gooch has finished second in each edition of this season’s rankings. An awesome goal and all-round showing at Accrington kept him within touching distance of our champion.

3: Alim Ozturk (89 pts) (5) - Through sheer consistency Ozturk achieved a top three finish. He was one of the higher scorers in our London Road horror show and achieved credible marks against Accrington and Rotherham as well.

4: George Dobson (87 pts) (15) - Dobson is finally getting regular League One minutes after his inspirational role in the Black Cats league cup upset of Burnley. In a difficult period for Sunderland, his industrious performances see him finish fourth.

5: Jordan Willis (83 pts) (6) - Like Ozturk, Willis remains one of Sunderland’s most reliable performers and unsurprisingly is near the top of the ranks as well. Only Chris Maguire and Gooch scored higher than the towering centre half at Accrington.

6: Jon McLaughlin (83 pts) (9) - Despite receiving his fair share of criticism in recent games. McLaughlin scored mainly 5’s and 6’s in Sunderland’s past two matches during a tough spell for Sunderland he’s sixth.

7: Aiden McGeady (83 pts) (8) - The villain of Tuesday’s disappointing draw with Rotherham, McGeady still makes the top ten here due to his classy display at Accrington where he averaged a 7/10 score among our markers.

Photo by Mark Fletcher/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images

8: Luke O’Nien (81 pts) (3) - Despite his struggles against Peterborough, O’Nien maintains a top ten spot. Our versatile dynamo earned a variety of marks for his performance in midfield and mainly 6’s in our victory over Accrington.

9: Chris Maguire (66 pts) (7) - The King may have missed the Peterborough match through injury but he still reaches our top ten. Maguire was a top performer at Accrington and even with a forgettable cameo against the Millers, he still makes the cut.

10: Will Grigg (65 pts) (4) - Grigg is still finding his feet in his new role as Sunderland’s super sub, but by appearing in all three matches he earns enough marks to sneak into the top ten.

11: Grant Leadbitter (61 pts) - One of the highest scorers through two fixtures, Leadbitter missed out against Rotherham and drops to 11th in our totem poll as a result.

12: Denver Hume (58 pts) (14) - An injury meant that Hume missed out against Peterborough. That alongside uneven showings against Accrington and Rotherham leave the left back outside the top ten.

13: Dylan McGeouch (58 pts) (12) - Still on the periphery of the first team and not a guaranteed starter, McGeouch’s placement in our ranks reflects his struggles in trying to nail down a permanent starting spot.

14: Conor McLaughlin (42 pts) (13) - Our Northern Ireland international continues to struggle to adapt to life on Wearside. Poor showings against Peterborough and Rotherham keep McLaughlin towards the bottom of the rankings.

15: Charlie Wyke (42 pts) (1) - From hero to zero, edition two’s champ fluffed his big chance against Rotherham and picked up a remarkably dumb red card against the Posh.

16: Tom Flanagan (27 pts) (18) - Flanagan’s role in our attempts at damage limitation with nine men at Peterborough earns him 16^th place with so few players representing the Black Cats in league outings.

17: Elliot Embleton (24 pts) 18: Max Power (23 pts) 19: Lee Burge (0 pts) 20: Duncan Watmore (0 pts) 21: Joel Lynch 22: Laurens De Bock 23: Benji Kimpioka (0 pts) 24: Bali Mumba (0 pts)