Sunderland A.F.C. striker Josh Maja has been named as the EFL Young Player of the Month for August. please log in to view this image The 19-year-old, who follows in the footsteps of Dele Alli and Wilfried Zaha by winning the award, has made a scintillating start to the campaign, and he's scored in four of the club’s opening five league games. From an opening-day goal against Charlton Athletic to breaking the deadlock against Luton Town, the striker has made a seamless transition from under-23 marksmen to first-team goalscorer. He netted his fifth goal of the season against Fleetwood Town in the Lads’ most-recent home outing, and he’ll be hoping to add to his tally when Jack Ross’ side face Rochdale at The Stadium this weekend. The Lads remain unbeaten on home turf this term, sitting fourth in the Sky Bet League One table after eight games, but Maja explains that both he and his team-mates are far from finished, and he's set his sights on more goals and more wins. “I feel blessed, and obviously I'm grateful for the award,” he said. I think it's reward for the hard work that I have put in, and the goals that I have scored in the games that I have played, and it was great to contribute and help to put some points on the board.” He continued: “The club have shown faith in me and given me the opportunity to play. “Coming up through Sunderland’s Academy has been nice because you have people that care about you, and I think that the manager has come in and continued that mentality." “I want to keep pushing myself and to show everybody that I can do more, and that this is just the start, but our goal isn’t to win individual awards, it’s to win this league and to take this club back into the Championship, and as long as we work together as players, as staff and as fans, I’m confident that we can do that.” This is a slight contrast to the fortunes of Joel Asoro at the moment
He's still learning and has struggled in a few games but he fully deserves the award. No doubt. As you say Gordon, a long way from Joel's fortunes so far
Good lad, pleased for him his obvious aim is to keep this form up throughout the season which because of his age and inexperience he will find very difficult but that's OK . Nice to see a good news story coming out of the clubs decent start.
He has a football brain and good close control, not the quickest, and he has struggled at times but this is to be expected, he is learning with every game and has taken his chance well, and is now central to the team, a deserved reward imo. Well done Josh. Asoro left a season too early, as did Paddy, would rather have them still of course and got rid of a few others I could mention, but the new brooms have done brilliantly with what was left at the club, the season is going well, fourth at this stage is a fine achievement, and just like Josh we should get even stronger as the season developes.
No problem if the lad out grows us. Only means he'll have done exceptionally well for us. Hopefully we keep up with his development and we can grow together Sent from my Moto G (5) using Tapatalk
I think you're right about him not being the quickest but I swear that one time in one game I saw him open up and he was actually fast as **** across a long distance. Definitely not quick off the mark but unless I imagined it he's faster than he lets on.
Asoro is lightning over ten yards. Always thought Maja would win a half pitch foot race though. Takes time to get up to speed but his fastest is fast
Yeah Asoro has the acceleration but Maja has the top speed going off that one time in one game, can't recall any other times although he hasn't had many chances to show any pace this season because he's been asked to do the hold up role and he's been coached as such and done a grand job but I do think he's got it in his armoury. Pretty **** hot overall for his age to be fair. Almost no weaknesses now.
Only one I can think of is heading - he doesn't win many headers up against the defenders - hasn't quite learned how to get himself in the position to win the ball against bigger centre halves (watched Shane Long, who is around the same size, and he wins loads of headers against 6' 4" defenders as he knows where to come from to get them. That's a difficult skill and takes time to learn though so have no qualms about that
During the match highlights, https://www.safc.com/news/team-news/2018/september/rochdale/highlights-v-rochdale, the commentator mentioned that Maja was in talks with the club about extending his contract. Do players salaries typically increase after promotion, while under contract?
