Sunderland defender Billy Jones has come out and done the usual trick of stating the obvious to the local press today by admitting himself and his team-mates have been left “embarrassed” by the amount of goals they have already conceded this season.
Sunderland,who massively failed to strengthen the defence in the summer with only one real addition in the shape of Younes Kaboul, are rooted to the bottom of the Premiership after letting in 16 goals from just seven league games.
Jones, who is under pressure for his place in the team from DeAndres Yedlin, will be lucky to feature this weekend against West Ham, has been poor defensively as he has going forward as he told the Sunderland Echo today his feelings on how the season has gone so far: “I think for the whole team as an XI, it would be massive to keep a clean sheet,” said right-back Jones.
“We’ve conceded far too many goals and we’re embarrassed by that and disappointed by that.
“But we’re striving to get more solid and get more clean sheets as a collective.
“Obviously when you’ve gone into a game and worked Monday to Friday to be solid and compact as a group, to then make individual mistakes is hard.
“Some goals haven’t just been down to that.
“But this league is so unforgiving. You make those mistakes and it usually ends with players scoring goals.
“We know what brought us success at the end of last year and it hasn’t been the same standard.
“With losing games, it’s hard to remain confident.
“We need to get that win, put that to bed and move onwards and upwards.
“West Ham have got an amazing away record at this moment of time, but they’re beatable.”
Sunderland will be looking to grab all three points for the first time this campaign against Slaven Billic’s impressive West Ham but they will need to defend like they did at the end of last season to avoid another horror show that the fans have all become accustomed to.
