Sunderland boss Gus Poyet insists he doesn't want to lose Jozy Altidore in January.
Poyet says that, despite his drought, the USA international will not been banished to the reserves.
"As a manager, I'm going to use him. It will be a surprise for a few," said Poyet, whose side face Manchester City and Liverpool on the back of the league leaders.
"I'm not saying I'm going to use him on Saturday, but I'm going to use him in a nice way and I'll use him because we need him. He's our player and he needs to do something special for us.
"He's not started many games under me but in these three games we need to use the squad very well.
"They're three tough games and we'll have to utilise the squad. Up front we have Jozy, Connor (Wickham) and (Steven) Fletcher. Jozy's the main striker on the bench at the moment so we'll use him a lot."
