Borini knows what must be done
Of the two targets he set himself at the beginning of the campaign, on-loan Liverpool forward Fabio Borini has achieved one. Now the Italian has trained his sights on the other: more goals.
The 22-year-old joined Sunderland for the season on transfer deadline day last September and has since featured in 19 matches for the Black Cats, registering his name on the scoresheet three times.
Each of those conversions have been pivotal for his temporary club; a stunning match-winner in their derby against Newcastle United, before League Cup strikes past Chelsea and Manchester United.
That has not satisfied the Italian, however, who is conscious of the necessity for a player in his position to regularly hit the target - particularly if he is to eventually succeed at Liverpool.
"The first objective of the season was to get on the pitch every week," he reflected. "I still have objectives to achieve, like scoring more goals.
"To play in the big teams like Liverpool, you don't just need to perform well. As a striker you need to score goals. That's the next step. As a striker you can perform well, but at the end of the season people count your goals.
"I needed to prove to myself first that I can play here because I have never had a long spell playing in England.
"I have always been in England but I have never had a long run of games. At Swansea, I only had 12 games, Liverpool not so long because of injuries and Chelsea I was substitute a few times.
"I will finish my season here and then after that I will go back to Liverpool because that is my contract. The aim here first is to stay up, not go down.
"It would be nice to go back there as a Premier League player and to have shown them that even in a hard situation, instead of winning every week, that I can do well."