This is how Lee Johnson is 'flattening the waves' and guarding against complacency at Sunderland

The previous evening they had excelled in a 5-0 victory over Cheltenham Town but here the coaching staff sensed a slight drop in standards during training.

One of Lee Johnson' s key mantras at Sunderland is to 'flatten the waves'.

Not to get too high in victory, or too low in defeat.

He says focusing on performances, more so than results, is key to ensuring his squad avoids complacency in the weeks ahead.

He is confident the focus on personality in the club's recruitment will ensure that is not the case, but says the long season will test his younger players.

"All we can control is improving performances, simple as that," he said.

"I don't think we've got a group that will get ahead of themselves, I honestly don't and that comes back to recruitment as well and the characters you bring in.

"Take Wednesday morning, for example.

"At times in training it was a bit sloppy, a bit after the Lord Mayor's show.

"It was a technical session and we were quite aggressive in demanding the standards, and it could have been a day where you let things stand but we won't do that.

"Our challenge will be in the winter. My experience of younger players is they're very good in the summer when the pitches are spot on, the weather is good etc.

"They're not necessarily hardened to that battle in January, February, and so that will be another test for us."

22 points from nine games is a superb return but Johnson is not one to set targets for blocks of the campaign.

"What I do is set targets in terms of where we're at within the playing philosophy, which is really important," he said.

"The way we work our stats is all about being designed in the way we want to play, so we keep a level of consistency with the other stuff because we believe the results come from getting the process right.

"But, there's absolutely no doubt you need the points return to be successful and what we've hit so far everyone should be proud of.

"At the same time, it's straight onto trying to get the next three.

"I think it's 114 left, I think we have to fight tooth and nail for every single one of those.

"We've talked a lot about flattening the waves since I got here. Make no mistake, we and I are very down if we lose because that's just a human reaction.

"It's about not compounding that feeling by me stropping about, coaches biting at players etc.

"So you just try to look objectively at the performances, the positives and the bad stuff.

"At times you try to inject a bit of anxiety if you feel the players are getting a little bit over-confident, and over the course of the season we've got to be one of the best over 46 games.

"I honestly believe the only way to do that is to have a level of consistency, and so I think you have to create a safe space to grow, especially when you have young players.

"There's got to be that space to fail."

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