Sunderland crashed out of the Capital One Cup again to Manchester City tonight with Dick Advocaat blaming individual errors, he was unwilling to blame individual players, with the Dutchman remaining upbeat despite poor Sunderland defending again.
“Maybe you think I will be negative, but I’m not,” he said.
“Yes, I’m negative we lost 4-1, but I think the way we played in the first 25 minutes was quite positive.
“I was not happy with the way we gave the goals away again, and it is not the first time.
“But it makes no sense to name names – everybody could see the mistakes – simple mistakes, which are not possible at this level, especially against a team like Manchester City.
“I don’t want to point out individuals and I’m not angry, because I have seen the goals we gave away.”
First-half goals from Sergio Aguero, Raheem Sterling, Kevin De Bruyne and a Vito Mannone own goal, put the game beyond Sunderland’s reach after 41 minutes. The Black Cats had a couple of chances to level at 1-1, with Fabio Borini having a goal wrongfully disallowed for what was a very soft foul on Nicolas Otamendi, while Ola Toivonen brought an excellent save out of City keeper Willy Caballero with a header following good wing play from debutant DeAndre Yedlin.
Advocaat said: “At 1-0, we had a chance [through Borini] to make it 1-1.
“At the moment things are not going our way, but I am confident it will change.”
Advocaat added: “I said to the players at half-time, they had to go and show the commitment not only for the team but also as individuals, because if we go on like had the last 15 minutes, they will score another four goals.
“I was very pleased with what I saw in the second half. They worked really hard and you could see the fans saw that and stayed until the end.”
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