Grayson looking for much more from his players
Simon Grayson wants to see more resilience from his Sunderland side after their firsthalf collapse on Saturday.
The Black Cats conceded three goals in quick succession, the scenes all too familiar for those who watched the Black Cats last season. Grayson was unimpressed with their response and wants his side to be better at ‘digging in’.
He said: “It’s something that has happened over the last season or so where we concede one, and then it leads to two or three very quickly. “You can’t afford to do that. “No matter what level you play at, when you concede a goal you have to be mentally and physically strong to make sure that you stay in the game. It doesn’t always have to be the beautiful game, sometimes for five minutes it is about digging in, winning second balls and you can then grow into the game. It is a mindset the players have to get into themselves.”
Grayson reiterated that his players will have to adjust to the style of the Championship and wants to see more progress made in the coming weeks.
He said: “I’ve been talking about this for the last two weeks, it is completely different to the Premiership, they have to get that into themselves very quickly. They can’t play tipp-tappy football all the time, because the opposition will be all over you.
“Play in the right areas, play further forward, too often we were just playing across the back, go and work the opposition, make sure people are seeing it in the final third, expressing themselves, but you have to have people prepared to run up and down as well.”