Lynden Gooch on Sunderland reunion, settling in at Stoke City and changing role
Lynden Gooch talks to StokeonTrentLive ahead of Stoke City’s trip to take on his former club Sunderland in the Championship
Lynden Gooch, fresh from his 250th league appearance and ahead of a trip to face his old club, can start to see signs that all corners of this Stoke City squad realise what is needed in the Championship.
Gooch is one of 22 new arrivals to enter the Stoke changing room this season, including eight who had never previously played in England. His CV, on the other hand, includes experience in three divisions
with Sunderland, culminating in two Wembley wins; scoring to seal the EFL Trophy followed by a hard-fought promotion in the League One play-offs.
So the 28-year-old is embracing attacking orders under Steven Schumacher but also understands the importance of digging in and holding your ground when needs must.
“Anyone who’s got promoted from any league, that’s a memory you’ll hold,” he said. “That feeling, you want to bottle it up. I want to get back to the Premier League. I played there as a young player just coming through at Sunderland but it wasn’t too long – and I got a bad ankle injury that season as well which kind of cut it short.
“I’m desperate to get back there and I know Stoke’s ambition is obviously to get back there too. That’s where we want to be. The infrastructure is already here, the way we’re investing, and you can see that players are capable, it’s a matter of whether we can consistently grind out results. It’s a really difficult league and you’ve got to be very consistent.
“Even this week, watching Ipswich (who got a last minute goal to draw with Leicester), I think they’ve won the most points from losing positions this season and that shows a lot. Consistency is massive. It’s not just about passing the ball around nicely, you have to dig in when it’s tough.
