Jermain Defoe signing to prove a masterstroke

Jermain Defoe has swapped the MLS for a return to the EPL

Alex Johnson is very confident that by bringing in Jermain Defoe, Sunderland will kick on.

The signing of Jermain Defoe will be key in helping Sunderland climb the Premier League table in the second half of the season.

The Black Cats sit 16th in the Premier League and are only one point ahead of the relegation places. It has been a tough first four months of the season for Gus Poyet's side and their real problem has been goalscoring.

Sunderland have won only three league games so far, while they have drawn 11 matches. Turning even a couple of those draws into wins would have seen them sit in a much healthier position in the Premier League - and that could have happened if their strikers had been more successful.

Their forwards have consistency struggled to find the back of the net, with Steven Fletcher and Connor Wickham having scored just four and three goals respectively, while Jozy Altidore had not broken his duck in the league. As a team they have scored a mere 19 goals in 22 games, with only Aston Villa having scored fewer.

Poyet knew exactly what he needed to do in January to provide his team with a huge lift. He needed to bring a proven Premier League goalscorer to the Stadium of Light and, in the shape of Defoe, he has done exactly that.

The deal to bring in the 32-year-old 55-time capped England international, which included the American mis-fit Altidore moving to Toronto FC, means Poyet had undoubtedly added goals to his side. It could be said that swapping such a proven Premier League scorer for a striker who scored just one in the league in one-and-a-half seasons looks a master stroke from the Uruguayan.

Defoe is 14th on the all-time Premier League goalscorer list with 124 goals throughout a glittering top-flight career. That goes some way in explaining why a host of clubs were looking to bring him back to England this window, with Sunderland stealing a march on their rivals.

He has consistently scored goals with West Ham, Spurs (twice) and Portsmouth and his addition to the squad virtually guarantees goals. Defoe is a real poacher and has tended to score a goal every two games throughout his Premier League career - anything similar to that for Sunderland over the coming months should see them comfortably out of trouble.

Defoe offers a different threat to the rest of the Sunderland strikers. He will try to run in behind defenders and is a natural goalscorer who can go through a game virtually anonymous before popping up to bag the one chance presented to him and seal all three points.

The addition of Defoe to the Sunderland line-up will also create space for their creative midfielders as defenders sit deeper to deal with his wily threat. That should benefit the likes of Adam Johnson, Sebastian Larsson and Jordi Gomez, who are capable of both setting up chances for the strikers and also getting in on the scoring act themselves.

It will be vital that Sunderland get him fully match-fit sooner rather than later. His debut in the weekend's loss to Spurs was his first game since October and he did last 75 minutes, but Defoe looked some way short of full sharpness. Indeed, it was the first time in Defoe's career that he did not score on his debut for a new club.

If Sunderland create the chances, Defoe will convert far more than he misses. That kind of clinical finishing has been missing from their team this season and his addition should help them climb the table over the coming months.