Sunderland boss wants greater stubbornness as squad taught yet another Championship lesson

Lee Camp can only watch as Adam Matthews' own goal (out of picture) goes into the net for Ipswich's second goal against Sunderland on Saturday. Picture by Frank Reid

Immediately after Saturday’s 2-0 Championship defeat to Ipswich Town, the Black Cats boss bemoaned his side’s naivety, particularly in contrast to Mick McCarthy’s squad.

The financial situation at the Stadium of Light left Coleman relying largely on inexperienced young signings in the January window.

And he admits that the newcomers, and the rest of the squad, will have to show a greater stubbornness quickly.

Asked if his side were naive against Ipswich, Coleman said: “They can be. When they’re experienced, they’ll grow up quickly.

“Ipswich have got some good, experienced boys who knows the league inside out. They’ve got a manager who knows the league inside out.

“But I’m happy with the boys we’ve brought in during the transfer window – we did good business there and it’s just getting them to the pace of it as quickly as they can because as we know the Championship is fast, aggressive, and physical.

“But then we’ve got one or two players who have been here a long time, and have been through it all season.

“They need to step in because they know how it works.

“It’s not so much the boys we’ve just brought in.

“Kaz (LuaLua) hasn’t been playing, Fletch (Ashley Fletcher) hasn’t really been playing that much but he knows the league and he’ll be okay; it was Ovie (Ejaria)’s debut in the Championship, but he’ll be fine.

“I look at one or two of the Ipswich defenders and they’re cute, clever, bumping, fouling, and their strikers use a bit of game-play – that’s fine, that’s football, I’m not complaining about it.

“Then we’ve got young Joel Asoro, who’s so honest he can get bullied.

“Those are the players we’ve got. He’s a good player, Joel Asoro, I’m not singling him out.

“But we’ve got to be a bit more street-smart in games.

“I said this to the Welsh team I had at the start – we weren’t very street-smart.

“We used to get the life bullied out of us by teams like Bulgaria and Croatia because we were too honest.

“They got better at that and we’ve just to get that in place here and be more stubborn.

“We get in great situations and it comes to nothing.”

Sunderland again gifted soft goals to the opposition and that is something Coleman knows his team must change immediately.

He added: “I don’t know why, but we let teams off the hook.

“We never get given a nice, simple goal where you look at the opposition and say, ‘That’s poor by them.’

“Some of the goals we give away are preventable. That’s where we’ve got to get better.

“It comes with experience and from the training pitch, but, ultimately, it comes from self-motivation, accepting the situation and just getting on with it.

“The more times you’re in that environment, the better you get – as long as you don’t take the easy way out.

“You’ve got to face the challenge that’s coming and it’s a huge challenge in front of us.

“Our boys will be better if they face it and I’m sure they will.”