Jordan Willis on Oxford draw, Sunderland's new system and why it can succeed

Jordan Willis says Sunderland must be more ruthless after their campaign began with a frustrating 1-1 draw.
Jordan Willis says Sunderland must be more ruthless about their opening-day drawJordan Willis says Sunderland must be more ruthless about their opening-day draw
Jordan Willis says Sunderland must be more ruthless about their opening-day draw

The defender made his league debut for the Black Cats and said that his side can’t afford a repeat of the soft goal that allowed Oxford United to take the lead early on.

“We've got to be more ruthless at both ends of the pitch,” he said.

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“I think we made it hard for ourselves going behind early on because from then on you're chasing it. They were quite smart in what they did so we need to cut that out and be more ruthless.

“They frustrated us in the way they played and going a goal behind allowed them to do that.

“We've got to go again, work this week and put it right next Saturday.”

The draw saw Sunderland continue with the new shape they played with in pre-season, and Willis believes there were positives on show.

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“I've played it before but every manager has a different tweak and style on it,” he said.

“It allows us to be expansive, pass it around, play the big switch.

“We've worked a lot on it, you can see when it comes off it works really well.

“The play in between both boxes was good, we moved it well and got it into the final third, we've just got to be more ruthless.

“We know we have to turn these draws into wins.

“We can't let it get us down, there's 45 games to go but we know we have to go out next week and win.”