From that perspective, it was easy to see just how badly Saturday's loss at Wigan hurt Sunderland boss Steve Bruce.

Every manager is different and Bruce's style in his post-match Press conferences is to be even-handed and upbeat; to accentuate the positives, even in defeat.

No matter how disappointed, he rarely shows it publicly under the glare of national scrutiny and although he gives honest answers to honest questions he invariably protects his players.

After Saturday's 1-0 defeat at Wigan though, you could tell he restrained himself from lashing out only with the greatest of difficulty.

And although there were only glimpses of his real depth of feeling, those glimpses were so revealing.

It is unlike Bruce to publicly threaten to get rid of players and bring other ones in, in the wake of a defeat; it is even more unusual for him to question the character of his players, but at the weekend he did both.

"It was a deeply frustrating result because we've seen how good we can be," he said.

"You can't beat Arsenal and Liverpool and push Manchester United and Spurs all the way unless you have something.

"So you have to ask why we are turning in performances like this one and have been doing so for some time?

"That's one win in 17 games on the road now, pre-dating my arrival, and if we are going to take the club forward we have to look at that.

"The performances we are seeing on the road are a shadow of the ones we are seeing at home and unless that mentality changes, we will have to do something about it.

"If we didn't have the ability, I'd accept that, but we do have the ability, so we have to change the mentality, because that's all it can be.

"If we can't change that, then I'll have to change the personnel because I can't afford performances like this.

"I'm upset, not just because I'm the previous Wigan manager, it's the level of performance more than anything else – the support we've had from our fans at this game and we haven't kicked the ball."

Bruce switched from 4-5-1 to 4-4-2 in the second half and his side improved, but, while he wondered whether he should have changed things around earlier, he refused to accept that as pivotal in the defeat.

He couldn't look any further than the players themselves.

"I'll take responsibility," he shrugged.

"Maybe I should have changed the system earlier, even though that system has served us well in our last couple of games.

"But you can talk all you want to about systems and formations and tactics, sometimes you just have to show up and show a bit of bottle.

"We should have had more pride and endeavour in our performance.

"On the day, it wasn't the same team I saw against Arsenal – so I have to look at changing things.

"The problem has to be mentality and if that's the case then I have to look long and hard at things.

"If I could be sitting there after the match saying that we've given our all, then I would have taken it, but I can't say that.

"Whether it's over-confidence or mentality I don't know, but we were sadly lacking and I've seen it four times in four months now, which is just too often.

"I always knew Wigan would react after getting walloped, but that wasn't my concern – I knew they would respond.

"I was only concerned about us maintaining our standards and we didn't.

"Maybe we thought we just turn up the result, but we were sadly lacking.

"You analyse things and I have to remind myself of where the club was last season and how it almost got relegated.

"The club's away form has been really poor for a really long time now and unless we arrest that, we have no way of going forward.

"But that's the one thing I'm determined to do, I'm determined to take the club forward."

Sunderland fans will be smarting tonight and rightly so – especially those who made the thankless journey to the DW Stadium.

But none of them should be in any doubt that in Bruce they have a manager who is on the case.

He might not do the thousand-yard stare or the compressed rage soundbites of his predecessor Roy Keane. But the same steely desire to win runs through both former Manchester United captains and Bruce has the knowledge and experience to move things on.

"It will take time," was Bruce's parting concession.

But, make no mistake, the Sunderland manager remains a man on a mission and ruthlessness comes with the territory.