Granit Xhaka delivers his verdict on what is going wrong at Sunderland and what has to stop
Sunderland sit bottom of the Premier League after their defeat to Coventry City on Saturday
Granit Xhaka insists individual mistakes are the reason behind Sunderland's poor Premier League form and that it is up to the players to put it right.
The Black Cats remain rooted to the bottom of the table after a 3-1 defeat to Coventry City, and have not won in the league since Fulham's visit to the Stadium of Light in August. The latest defeat and the manner of it has increased debate around the position of head coach of Régis Le Bris, but Xhaka says it is on the players and that preparation is not an issue.
"We want to win games and we prepare ourselves to win games, but if we are not doing the things we are doing in training all week, if we are not doing the things the coach is asking for, then you see what happens," Xhaka said.
"Again, there were so many mistakes in our game. If you do that, then you cannot win any football games.
“I don’t know [why there are so many mistakes]. Is it a mental thing? Is it that you go onto the pitch thinking about not making mistakes and then exactly the opposite happens? It is not like the opponents are killing us and creating lots and lots of chances. It is just the mistakes we are making. When you are conceding two or three goals every game, you have no chance of winning in the Premier League, or any football game to be honest."
Xhaka said effort was not an issue and that the dressing room remains united, but that the mistakes simply have to be cut out.
“It is not about a lack of effort, absolutely not," he said.
"We are working really well during the week, we are working as hard as we can in the games as well. It is just what I have been talking about, how many mistakes we are making and then we concede.
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“There is an absolute togetherness in the dressing room. The dressing room is not the problem. The coach is not the problem. The staff is not the problem. We have a very good feeling within the group and we know what we want to do. We are prepared very well from the staff side of things. But it is up to us. And if you are not doing the things that you are training all week for, then you will have problems. And as I keep on saying, the mistakes are killing us at the moment. If you can’t stop them, then you can’t win.
“You can’t say it’s because of the red cards or that something is not right because of that. Of course, things are not right, we are bottom of the league. We didn’t win [at Coventry]. We wanted to win and we knew how important the game was. If you see all the game, then it is not like Coventry created lots and lots of chances. But we are making our life very, very difficult at the moment. We are doing that to ourselves, and we need to stop this. The moment we stop this, as you saw against Leeds, against Brentford, against Lech Poznan in the Europa League, we have the quality. We have the team to turn this around, but the mistakes have to stop."
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