Basic lapses must stop to fix form

SIMON Grayson has admitted his frustration at watching Sunderland repeatedly make the same basic mistakes.

The Black Cats boss saw his side ship two more soft goals at the weekend, as Bristol City won 2-1 at the Stadium of Light.

Darron Gibson lost his man at a corner for the first goal, while John O’Shea was beaten too easily in the air by Milan Djuric for the second.

But they are not the only guilty men, with goalkeeper Jason Steele and virtually every member of the back four culpable in recent weeks.

“The mistakes are frustrating, because it is not the same person doing it,” said Grayson.

“If it was the same person making these mistakes, they wouldn’t be in the team. It has been three or four different people who have made similar kinds of mistakes.

“That’s why it is frustrating, because it is something we work on, something we reiterate and remind the players about.

“So I understand how frustrating that is for supporters as well because they are seeing something quite basic affect the result.”

In the wake of Saturday’s defeat, Grayson said his players needed to ‘take responsibility’ on the field.

And he expanded on that by saying: “In terms of what I said on Saturday, I have touched on it a little bit without going overboard.

“I don’t criticise individual players in public, what I say in the dressing room remains in the dressing room, but it is about what players do on the grass and I can’t make every decision for them.

“When we are telling them who to mark, and we work on set-pieces on a Friday, and then someone lets a 5ft 7in player get a free header, that’s not my fault.

“That’s a player’s responsibility, because he has been given a job and he hasn’t done what he is required to do.

“In this day and age, the modern footballer, do they take a lot of responsibility? Probably not, but they are getting paid and they should do.”

Grayson will be praying the players heed his words when basement side Bolton Wanderers arrive for a game that could be pivotal to his position as manager.

And he has told his team they must play with more urgency.

He said: “I want them to express themselves, I want them to run around, I want the fans to see that they are giving their all, putting crosses in, winning second balls, and playing with a real sense of purpose.

“The difference tomorrow is that I want us to play with more urgency – when the ball goes out of play, let’s run after it and take a quick throwin, or take a quick free-kick.

“We need more urgency to take the game to the opposition and let them worry more about us than we do about them, which has sometimes affected the players.”