Team needs to adopt ‘siege mentality’ to survive
ROCK-bottom Sunderland must adopt a siege mentality as they battle relegation, according to Chris Coleman.
The Black Cats boss says outsiders are waiting for Sunderland to ‘fail and fall flat on our face’ with many having already written-off the Wearsiders’ hopes of Championship survival, and says it is up to him and his team to make the doubters eat their words.
“We have to have the mentality that everyone hates us, we’re not Sunderland with its big history and 40,000 people behind us when everything is going well, we are where we are,” said Coleman, whose side takes on Middlesbrough at the Stadium of Light tomorrow. “Nobody likes us, nobody wants us to succeed, so let’s go against everybody.
“That will give us a fighting chance. “We’ve to have that mentality. “Everybody hates us, every wants us to fail and fall flat on our face.
“People will look at it as Sunderland, what a story that is, back-to-back relegations, we’ve got to have that underdog mentality, keep it tight, us against the world.
“People still see us a scalp, they want us to fail, so let’s get that amazing feeling when you shut them up because you’ve got the results when everyone has written you off. If we get that mentality I think we’ll pick up wins.”
With Sunderland propping up the Championship, three points from safety, having just lost to relegation rivals Bolton Wanderers, and with only five wins to their name all season, it is easy to see why a growing number of people believe the Black Cats are heading for backto-back relegations. But there are still 13 games remaining, which is more than enough time to claw back that deficit.
“Our performances in the last five games have not been good enough – there have been one and a half performances, the second half at Bristol, and the game at Bolton,” said Coleman.
“It’s not good enough overall, though.