Tuesday 9 December 2014 12:20, UK
Gus Poyet has challenged his Sunderland players to rediscover their cutting edge after drawing a blank at Liverpool.
Poyet's side recorded their third goalless draw in four Premier League games and recorded only one shot on target in Saturday’s largely forgettable encounter at Anfield.
The Black Cats lost 8-0 to Southampton in October and the manager is pleased to see him team keeping clean sheets again - but now says they must address their problems at the other end.
“It’s clear in terms of defending and keeping a clean sheet we are back to basics,” Poyet told Sky Sports.
The most important thing in the Barclays Premier League is to win football games and at this moment we cannot win too many.
“We need to improve on the other side, we need to score goals and be more clinical. We need to find a way to create more chances and take a few of them.
“The most important thing in the Barclays Premier League is to win football games and at this moment we cannot win too many.
“Obviously the most difficult one is the most expensive one, which is to put the ball in the net. We need to find a way that maybe four or five players can score double figures this year.”
Poyet made five changes to the side that lost 4-1 to Manchester City in midweek and said his team looked fresher against Liverpool.
Wes Brown headed the best chance of the game over the bar on the stroke of half-time and Connor Wickham was denied two penalty appeals, leaving the manager to rue a missed opportunity to win at one of the most famous grounds in English football.
Poyet added: “There are times in your life when you have opportunities. Today we lost a great opportunity to win at Anfield.
“That was for different reasons, because of the game itself and the way we play, but overall what we tried to achieve was to improve technically from the last two games – to pass the ball better and I think we did that. We slowly got into the game and tried to create chances.
“I think we were better passing the ball, but we didn’t create for a half. When it was a little bit more open we created a few. That’s where we are and what we can do at the moment.
“You never know if the decisions are right or wrong until the game is played. We made strong decisions today and we changed four or five players from the other day, but like I said before the game these players have played together. Jozy Altidore gave us a terrific hand running the channels, he held the ball up well and he won the ball in the air.
“Liam Bridcutt in the middle with Jordi Gomez was fresh and we needed that because Liverpool are going to attack and pin you back.”
Poyet also refused to criticise referee Neil Swarbrick for refusing to point to the spot when Wickham went down twice in the area in the first half under challenges from Martin Skrtel and Lucas.
He added: “The first one looked like it was a penalty. It’s strange that Connor would go down when he had just played the ball over the defender.
“The second one is too difficult and I was too far [away]. I always say I don’t complain about decisions. It can go for you or against you overall in the whole season. You get more or less the same, it’s 50-50 either way.”
