Sam Allardyce has told his struggling players they must accept responsibility for Sunderland’s perilous Premier League position and should not attempt to deflect blame elsewhere.
“It’s difficult for everyone here at the moment but we have to face these difficulties,” said Allardyce before Monday night’s trip to Crystal Palace. “We have to face them head on. We’re in this position because we’ve got ourselves into it. Nobody else is going to get us out of it. It is not the referees’ fault, it is not the owner’s fault, it is our responsibility and we have to accept that responsibility. You can’t go blaming anyone else other than ourselves. It is down to us as a backroom staff and the players to get out of the trouble we’re in.”
Given the wealth of Premier League experience at the Stadium of Light, Allardyce is slightly puzzled that the squad he inherited from Dick Advocaat continues to flounder so acutely. It has left him challenging senior players including John O’Shea, Lee Cattermole, Steven Fletcher, Adam Johnson and Jermain Defoe to prove precisely why they have enjoyed such long careers in the top tier of English football.
“At the moment it’s all doom and gloom and the lads are feeling sorry for themselves,” said Sunderland’s manager. “It’s difficult to keep a smile on their faces but that’s not good enough really. We are where we are because we have not achieved enough on the football pitch. We have to pick our heads up, face the facts and get better.
“here’s enough experience here to get us out of trouble. I’ve said to the lads: ‘Use your experience, you’ve done it, you have been in the Premier League how long? You have been in it years, for hundreds and hundreds of games, so you know the level you need to get to.’ They need to achieve that level as quickly as they can. It’s about trying to get them to remember their responsibilities out on the field. We have to cut out the errors. Too many errors are costing us points.”
Considering that several of his players are veterans of successive, and successful, relegation battles on Wearside in recent seasons, Allardyce feels the task of lifting Sunderland out of the bottom three should be considerably more straightforward. “They should be able to cope with it,” he said. “They have enough experience but they’re clearly not coping at the minute. We have won one game and lost three since I’ve been here. That’s not good enough.
“The distance between us and safety is getting larger every single game that goes by when we don’t pick up any points. We have a mountain to climb and we have to start climbing it as quickly as we can.”
Allardyce could probably do without visiting a team as ruthlessly efficient and highly ambitious as Palace. With Alan Pardew particularly keen to exact revenge on Sunderland for the four successive defeats they inflicted on him during his tenure in charge of Newcastle, there is unlikely to be any complacency on the home side’s part at Selhurst Park.
“Alan has a squad of players who have responded to him very quickly,” said an admiring, somewhat envious, Allardyce. “He’s maximised their strengths. He’s found a system that suits every individual in the team and also suits the team as a whole. Basically, they are a super counter-attacking side. He’s using the skills of the team to the maximum potential. Unfortunately, I haven’t found our maximum yet. Hopefully I will find it very soon.”
