This has been an enormous week for Sunderland and Stewart Donald.

After sacking Phil Parkinson from his job as manager, they hired former Bristol City boss Lee Johnson.

That came just a day after the Black Cats appointed Kristjaan Speakman as their new sporting director and together with Johnson, they have enormous work to do in order to secure promotion.

Of course, the club is on the verge of changing ownership too. Donald has agreed a deal with Juan Sartori and Kyril Louis-Dreyfus but that hasn’t entirely been tied up.

With a huge change, you’d be forgiven for thinking that supporters might be a little more positive now. However, if you thought that, you couldn’t be more wrong.

Sunderland are now five games without a win in League One and Johnson’s first game in charge on Saturday was a drab affair, one they lost to Wigan 1-0.

Johnson hasn’t even had a training session with his new team yet so things can only improve but he won’t have been best pleased with the showing from his players.

In particular, the performance of Chris Maguire should have left him seething.

The forward was Sunderland’s top scorer last season but in 2020/21, has been a shadow of his former self. Maguire has now failed to find the back of the net in seven matches and simply has to be dropped, especially with Aiden McGeady now back in the frame too.

Against Wigan he lacked penetration and urgency, losing possession of the ball 19 times. Furthermore, he completed just one accurate cross of eight attempted and performed only one dribble.

On top of that, Maguire had just one shot in the entire game, one that was off target. It’s unsurprising that Sunderland failed to score with him on the pitch.

Having scored three times in 14 outings this season, his quality has been lacking and Johnson will now be seeking for answers.

If he can get Maguire firing, it will be a great start to Johnson’s reign. The early signs aren’t good, though.

In other news, check out what HUGE problem Speakman could solve instantly at Sunderland...