Lee Johnson offers candid assessment on his first Sunderland game in charge and what he needs to improve

The Black Cats fell to a bitterly disappointing 1-0 defeat against a Wigan Athletic that had started the day bottom of the League One table and without a win since early October.

Johnson had been confirmed as the new Head Coach just hours before kick off, and immediately stamped his mark on the side with some eye-catching changes.

Lee Burge was brought back in goal, while Will Grigg and Aiden McGeady were restored to the starting XI.

Despite a bright start, a soft goal allowed Wigan a vital lead and thereafter Sunderland suffered with a familiar inability to break down the opposition and carve out clear opportunities.

Johnson said it is up to him to build the confidence of his players, and ensure they can play with creativity.

“I think my honeymoon period lasted 15 minutes,” Johnson said.

“I’ll start from the start. Four hours into my reign, I really wanted to take the game today. I’m pleased I did because the learning process is really important. Not only am I learning about the players, I’m also learning about the staff and the feel of things.

“I did feel it was a little bit quiet in and around the place, and I wasn’t sure whether that was because it’s a manager’s day one. It’s my job to promote an element of creativity and not have personality supressed. Obviously, this is a very big club and that comes with heavy scrutiny on everybody. I feel like I’m big enough and ugly enough to cope with that over the long term, and step by step, keep progressing. I thought the first ten or 15 minutes was good in terms of what I asked them to do, which was have an attitude to play forward quicker, play forward run forward and break lines with their passing.

“I want them to receive well between the lines, but then have the attitude to turn. I feel we crossed the ball from poor areas too early and effectively let the opposition off the hook too many times. I thought the boys tried to implement the high press that we asked them to do, and that was a prerequisite as we came in to the job.

“That’s something that’s got to improve and continue to improve, and that will come from the structures of training and then the lads executing on the pitch. I definitely know what you’re talking about in terms of that final action.

“We definitely need to go back onto the training ground and work on movement in the box.

“We’re looking for players to get across the near post to disrupt the opposition back four, and then we need more bodies in the box. We were playing a 4-3-3 today to start with, and that should enable you to get at least four into the box, sometimes five.

“I just think at times, whether through a lack of understanding or cohesion, we didn’t get enough numbers into the box and also didn’t get enough quality, dynamic movement.”

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