Sunderland boss Sam Allardyce is beginning to make his mind up on who he wants to be part of his future plans from the current players at his disposal, reports the Sunderland Echo.
Allardyce took over from Dick Advocaat last month with Premier League survival the ultimate aim. He oversaw the Black Cats first win of the season at home against Newcastle, but was brought crashing back down to earth with a crushing 6-2 defeat against Everton Sunday afternoon.
Despite managing just three matches, Allardyce has used 18 different players during his time in charge, as he continues to ponder what could be his best eleven. He said: “I’ve seen some players more often than others, but I’m still making my mind up.
“Sooner or later, I’ll make my mind up and decide what’s good enough and what’s not. That’s my job to find out as quick as I can.
“Those who are going to fight and produce performances that you want, I’m going to stick with those. Those who don’t get up to that level will struggle to get a game.”
Four Sunderland regulars, Fabio Borini, Ola Toivonen, John O’Shea and Younes Kaboul all missed the trip to Goodison Park through injury, and to make matters worse club captain Lee Cattermole had to be replaced in the first-half due to an ongoing groin problem.
Allardyce added: “We can’t afford too many injuries in the position we’re in. It’s a bit of an ongoing problem with Cattermole. He hasn’t been training too much and we’ve been managing him through it. We’ve got to find a cure.”
Sunderland welcome Southampton to the Stadium of Light Saturday afternoon before a two-week international break, in which afterwards Allardyce hopes he’ll have a full strength squad to choose from: “Hopefully by the end of the international break, we’ll have completely recovered from the injuries and got John O’Shea and Younes Kaboul back.
“I don’t need to say that it looked like we missed them (at Everton).”
