We are now removed from the January transfer window, in which Sunderland managed to bring in five players. However, only one of them was a midfielder, which begs the question as to whether this area is strong enough for the club to remain in the top flight.
The one man brought in
Sam Allardyce did manage to add to his thin options in the midfield area as Wahbi Khazri arrived late in the window for a hefty £9 million fee from French club Bourdeaux. The Tunisian international would definitely fit into the team's system right now as Allardyce has been favouring a 4-2-3-1 setup, which would most likely see Khazri slot in behind a lone striker in the number 10 role he prefers.
The French born attacking midfielder can certainly supply Sunderland with some of the creativity they've been missing this season, whilst hopefully taking some of the goal-scoring burden off of Jermain Defoe, who has been somewhat carrying the team going forward this season - even with left-back Patrick van Aanholt's recent vein of form in front of goal.
Lack of deeper options
Signing Kazhri was all well and good but no other moves for midfield players last month - along with the departure of Jordi Gomez on loan to Blackburn Rovers - means the squad looks really light in terms of more defensive minded midfield options, especially when Allardyce plans on playing with two every game.
Lee Cattermole and Yann M'Vila have held down these two positions in the team, however, as mentioned, they have no real back-ups in the squad so fatigue and complacency is likely to kick in.
The latter seems to have occurred with vice-captain Cattermole already too, as he has been fairly inconsistent this season.
He has a class act alongside him in the form of M'Vila, who will most likely stay in the Premier League next season even if Sunderland don't. The former Wigan Athletic midfielder has been a big part of these previous great escapes too so deserves credit for that, but ultimately, with him regarded as a regular, the team will continue to be involved in these relegation battles.
What else can Allardyce try?
With the lack of depth in central midfield, one thing to try would be to switch the formation up and only play with one holding player instead of two.
One idea, especially with the arrival of Khazri, might be to play a diamond 4-4-2 formation with width, or a 4-1-4-1, by using the higher quality M'Vila to exclusively protect the back four and do nothing else, while asking the wide players to do more for the team defensively.
This idea does not sound very Allardyce like, but he did operate a similar system at West Ham United last season and at least in the first half of the campaign it worked wonders.
Another way to go about things could be to use Jan Kirchhoff as a defensive midfielder - a role he excelled in when moved there in the 1-0 defeat to Manchester City recently. However, this depends on whether or not he is needed in his natural centre-back position.
The only other option would be to bring in Jack Rodwell for Cattermole, but the £10 million signing from City has been arguably the biggest flop in the club's history and is not exactly suited to playing in a more reserved role.
Change needed
Finally the question of whether Sunderland's midfield is good enough to keep the club in the top flight has to be answered with a resounding no for various reasons.
Allardyce seems stubborn on persisting with a system which is not designed to win games unless you have high quality midfielders and, with the exception of M'Vila, Sunderland don't have this luxury.
Cattermole is too much of a liability at times for a club at the wrong end of the table to have in their team as, once he picks up a yellow card, he is more or less out of the game. Therefore, with the other midfielders in the squad either injured or wanting to play freer roles higher up the pitch, it seems this midfield unit can only take Sunderland down to the Championship.
The only way this can change is by the manager switching to a more attacking system in which he plays M'Vila as a sole defensive midfielder in the team. Sunderland have to take risks to get the results they need from now until the end of the season.