The secret to Healy’s reversal of fortune

Feb 10 2009 by Luke Edwards, The Journal

RICKY Sbragia has revealed how Sunderland are seeing the benefit of a newly motivated David Healy following a heart-to-heart with the Northern Ireland international.

Healy has struggled to make an impact on the first team since his summer move from Fulham and, according to Sbragia, had become disenchanted with life at the Stadium of Light under former manager Roy Keane.

But the striker has rediscovered his hunger and determination, as well as his goalscoring touch, with two in his last two games, after Sbragia told him it was time to stop feeling sorry for himself and prove he merited a first-team slot.

And the Black Cats boss has been delighted with the response as he argued Healy’s new lease of life had been a major reason why they had allowed Michael Chopra to return to Cardiff City last month.

He said: “David Healy has done super. We had big a chat before the Everton game because we didn’t think he was doing enough. Since that chat, he’s been doing absolutely super.

“We knew he could do more, that there was more to come from him, that the door isn’t closed. That’s one of the reasons we let Michael go, we thought David was slightly ahead of him.

“He might not have thought that there wasn’t an opening for him, but it was always there for him, he has to force the opening. Previously he wasn’t doing that.

“Credit to him, he’s been fantastic. He’s got on with it, he’s got this gift of scoring goals and of being at the right place at the right time.”

It was such predatory instincts which persuaded Keane to sign Healy last summer having previously tried

to bring him to the North East during the Black Cats’ promotion campaign in the Championship.

Although the 29-year-old former Leeds United and Preston striker scored on his debut against Nottingham Forest in the Carling Cup, he quickly became a predatory figure at the Stadium of Light and made just four more appearances while Keane was manager.

However, while Healy has failed to break up the partnership of Djibril Cissé and Kenwyne Jones, he started and scored against Blackburn in the FA Cup last week and came off the bench against Stoke City to wrap up a 2-0 win on Saturday.

And Sbragia is confident the striker has a major part to play this season and beyond, as he suggested there may even be times when he starts alongside Cissé and Jones in a new-look formation.

“We thought he might be able to get one for us, that was the idea of putting him on. He always gets himself in the box and he’s a good finisher,” said Sbragia (right).

“He loves it, David likes the place, he enjoys it, he knows he’s wanted which is important. All the squad know how we feel about them and they all want to play for Sunderland.

“We just said to him that whatever happened previously, it’s forgotten about, that it was a clean sheet. He wasn’t quite up to the boil in training.

“He was just doing enough, but we knew he could have done more. Since that day he’s been excellent.

“We thought he could give more link up play, more physical and more mental play, more involvement in general. Sometimes training was bypassing him. Just little things like that.”

And Sbragia added: “Starting with the three is a possibility, with Kenwyne the main striker and the other two playing around him. We were thinking about doing that a couple of weeks ago.”

Healy and Sunderland team-mate George McCartney are on international duty with Northern Ireland this week and the latter sat out training yesterday ahead of tomorrow’s World Cup qualifier in San Marino due to blisters.

Paul McShane, meanwhile, is doubtful for the Republic of Ireland’s qualifier against Georgia due a hamstring injury.