Chris Young of the Sunderland Echo are reporting comments today from French midfielder Yann M’Vila. The former Rennes man has said that Sunderland need to show some attitude when the bottom three side face West Ham this weekend.
Now all the games have been played for August and September, it is the third Premier League season in a row that Sunderland have failed to get a single win in either of the opening months of the season after their 3-0 loss to top of the league Manchester United leaves them rock bottom of the table.
M’Vila, signed in the summer, has been one of Sunderland’s best performers this season and he feels as though confidence is a real problem for the team and that their seven-match winless run of games is starting to get to their heads.
The Frenchman says that they need to get over the mental confidence block and be more aggressive in their play when West Ham come to the Stadium of Light at the weekend, which will be their last chance to get a win before the international break.
M’Vila told the Echo:
“Perhaps the confidence is a problem. When you haven’t won, then it’s not going to be too high. “We absolutely need to win for everyone at the club. “I hope that we can get it next week against West Ham, before we go away for the break. “That’s a very, very important match for me, in front of our supporters. “We need to show some courage, rather than losing so easily like we did on Saturday. “We need to show more aggression and courage. You should be playing matches on the edge. “We’re too nice sometimes. “It was too easy for Manchester United, when we should have been showing some aggression. “They got to 2-0 and they were just able to attack.”
The on-loan midfielder did think that Sunderland did well in the first half, nullifying United attacking prowess, up until the 45th minute when Depay steered home from close range.
“We were good for that first half – controlled, blocking things, We weren’t really able to play, gave the ball away too easily and weren’t able to keep hold of it long enough. But the goal just before half-time killed us. It just killed us. To lose another goal so soon after half-time completed it. When you concede a goal so soon before half-time, then you have to come out afterwards and be strong. Aggression is so important. If you go down 2-0, then it doesn’t end there and you just stop. You can’t lose like that. You’ve got to continue attacking to see what happens, find the opportunities so you can score.”
