REGIS LE BRIS feels Eliezer Mayenda is a “high-potential player”, but insists Sunderland cannot place too much goalscoring responsibility onto the 19-year-old’s shoulders.

The Black Cats’ failure to recruit an experienced centre-forward during the summer transfer window has once again shone a spotlight on their lack of ‘number nine’ options.

Ahmed Abdullahi, who arrived on deadline-day from Gent, will miss the next three months after undergoing groin surgery, while Nazariy Rusyn, who is likely to be on the bench at Plymouth this afternoon, would have left ahead of last month’s transfer deadline had an acceptable bid come in for him.

That just leaves Mayenda, and while the teenager has started the season impressively, scoring a brace in the win over Sheffield Wednesday, Le Bris accepts it would be wrong to expect too much of a player who was unable to get into the Hibernian team during his loan move to Edinburgh in the second half of last season.

Instead, the Black Cats boss is hoping his team can share the goals around this season, with the likes of Jobe Bellingham, Patrick Roberts, Romaine Mundle and Chris Rigg chipping in on a regular basis.

“The subject of the striker could be redefined, I think,” said Le Bris. “It’s not just one player who is involved to score. The responsibility has to be shared. Yes, there is a striker, but there is also the left winger, the right winger, the offensive midfielder. Maybe there are the others too.

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“There are many teams who have won big trophies by sharing their goals around. For example, the French team won the World Cup in 1998 and their main forward, Stephane Guivarc’h didn’t score. He didn’t score a single goal in the whole competition, but they won and he was very useful for the team. The other players scored. That could be part of the way we have to think about our striker here.

“It’s not a huge responsibility he (Mayenda) is carrying. It is a big responsibility, but he is still young. I hope he will score 20 or 25 goals. Maybe that will happen, maybe it won’t be the case. But Jobe can score, Riggy can score, Browney (Alan Browne) can score, Patrick can score and so on. That is the idea – we want to share things around now.”

Nevertheless, Le Bris has been impressed with the rate of Mayenda’s development since the start of pre-season.

The Spanish youngster looks increasingly comfortable leading the line in the Championship, even if his chance conversion rate could still be improved.

“It is clear he (Mayenda) is a high-potential player, and when you give this kind of player the right opportunities, they can grow very quickly,” added Le Bris. “The dynamic is not always stable, because they are still young.

“I hope it will be stable, but it could be unstable and, if that is the case, we will find other solutions with Naz or with Wilson (Isidor), for example, who could offer different things in that position. We have many options at the moment.”