Moyes: It is right to call my players lazy

Hard to come into work, says relegated manager Shearer’s attack on bad attitude backed by Scot

A weary David Moyes has finally lost patience with his Sunderland players and has launched an astonishing attack on their attitude and ability following relegation.

Moyes admitted it had been hard for him to come into work after Saturday’s capitulation against Swansea, when they lost 2-0 at home, and is no longer in the mood to defend those who have gone through the motions this season.

After Alan Shearer had labelled Sunderland’s players “disgraceful, lazy and pathetic” on Match of the Day, Moyes could only agree.

Privately, he has fumed about the attitude of some players for months and has talked of the poisonous atmosphere created in the dressing room by those who no longer want to play for the club. He finally hinted at some of those things in public ahead of Sunderland’s trip to Arsenal tonight.

“Everyone has seen it has been a difficult dressing room all year,” Moyes said. “I came here knowing exactly what the task was going to be. I didn’t know exactly what was going to happen behind the scenes.

“I have defended myself, I have had a great win record wherever I have been, and this is the only anomaly. But I have got to say it hasn’t happened for quite a few managers here – it has been that way for quite a while.

“Overall, we have been unable to get a good enough spirit. It was hard coming in to work yesterday because I was massively disappointed with the performance on Saturday. What we are privy to, and what we are able to see, is the physical output, and all those things which we can always judge, so we are disappointed.

“The players have to be the ones who see [it isn’t good enough]. The players are the ones who cross the line, they have to show what they can do.

“Probably a lot of them think they have something better to go to, but people who have been watching might say, ‘No, you’ve not’. You get recognised or picked up because of your record, of what you do, so let’s hope we get some really good performances from them against Arsenal and Chelsea.”

Asked about Shearer’s comments, Moyes replied: “I’d have to say that in many ways he was right. I am privy to the physical stats, and I couldn’t disagree.”

After tonight’s trip to Arsenal, Sunderland travel to Chelsea on Sunday, before Moyes has a meeting with owner Ellis Short to discuss whether he is going to stay on in the Championship.