Sunderland legend has stern words following Nottingham Forest collapse - 'There's no point'
One Sunderland legend has given his verdict on Sunderland's 5-0 collapse to Nottingham Forest last week.
Marco Gabbiadini has come to the defence of Regis Le Bris and Sunderland after their hammering against Nottingham Forest last week.
The Tricky Trees ran riot at the Stadium of Light on Friday, taking a 4-0 lead inside 37 minutes before rubbing salt in the wound with Elliot Anderson’s strike in the fifth minute of second-half stoppage time. It was an uncharacteristically poor performance from the Black Cats, who have been so strong both at home and defensively throughout most of their impressive first season back in the Premier League.
Gabbiadini defends Sunderland after Forest humiliation
There were some light boos from the stands at full-time on Friday night - though the vast majority of supporters stayed right behind their side. However, former Sunderland striker Gabbiadini believes Forest just enjoyed a particularly ‘ruthless’ night, and that Le Bris and his players have plenty of credit in the bank to account for a slip like this.
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"Forest were ruthless. They were pressing the ball. They were having two or three shots at goal and then it was going out for a corner, and then they'd score from the corner. We almost talk about the fine margins, and I think that's one of the biggest factors in the Premier League,” Gabbiadini told BBC Radio Newcastle.
"If you look at Sunderland this year, we haven't had too many bad days and we haven't had too many days where five, six, seven of the players have been off colour. We've been consistent, and the work rate has been incredible. The manager uses the word intensity a lot and intensity is one of the hardest things to achieve in any walk of life. Doing the same thing over and over again to the highest level is really difficult.
"We've seen a team this year that have been relentless at times, who have really ground their heels into teams when they've got them on the rack and turned games around from being a goal down. "There's no point just criticising people, people make mistakes. We haven't made many this year and the goalkeeper has hardly put a foot wrong in all the games he's played. It wasn't his best night and he got punished for it." Sunderland have the chance to bounce back when they travel to Wolves on Saturday.