Graeme Murty had no defence for his sides dismal defending as they suffered a 7-5 defeat to local rivals Middlesbrough. The young Black Cats had to overturn a three goal deficit at the break, with an incredible nine goals scored in the second-half.
The defeat means Sunderland Under-21s are without a win since October in Premier League 2 Division 2, leaving them third bottom of the table. Murty said: "Crazy is a good term. Any game which you score five goals at home, you should expect to walk away as a comfortable winner.
"We scored five wonderful goals, contrasted with seven goals that Middlesbrough didn't have to work very hard for because our individual understanding, execution in defensive situations was awful at times. I've just said on our club media that I will defend the guys because I see the work and ethic every single day, I can't defend some of the things they did in isolated incidents. They were too easy to play against and unfortunately when that happens, you get instant feedback and that instant feedback is you concede a goal and I didn't think overall, it hurt the lads enough today."
READ MORE: Sunderland U21s talking points as defences collapse in Wear-Tees derby
It's been a difficult campaign for the young Wearsiders, who have won just three times all season, one of those in the disappointing Premier League Cup campaign over the festive period. The Black Cats are six points adrift of local rivals Newcastle, who are just one place above them in the table, a clear sign of the gap separating Sunderland from not only the side above them in the league, but the gulf in class compared to Leeds United at the top of table.
"I just said that we are desperate as a coaching staff to give over responsibility for the game and organisation of the game, within the game, to the players," Murty said when asked about what he said at full-time. "We keep on talking about what we're doing, the concepts, how we're trying to effect the game both with and without the ball and they can do it as you can see.
"There are times where our press is spot on and we put good pressure on, we're connected in small spaces, we're compact and win possession high. We played through really quick.
"The goals are an indication of the quality in the final third. When we fall of that level, we're looking for leaders that are going to drive that level of standards, to maintain that, currently we're not there.
"We need to be more vocal than we'd like to be to help the guys out. I just said I'm far from being a PlayStation type coach and talking to the players all the time.
"Some of them need that assistance. The sooner we can stop doing that, the better for their development because they need, when they walk over the white line, to own the game."
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