Sam Allardyce issues January warning to his underperforming players
Sunday 27 December 2015 09:52, UK
Sunderland manager Sam Allardyce thinks replacing some of his players in January could be the club's only hope of survival.
Allardyce watched his team lose their fourth straight Premier League match as Manchester City steamrolled them 4-1 on Boxing Day, leaving them five points from safety.
Sunderland have conceded 16 goals in their last five Premier League away games.
Allardyce made six changes to his side for the 4-1 defeat as he gave some of his fringe players a chance to show him what they could do.
Allardyce said: "I've given the players as much time as I possibly could. Since I've been here we've had some fleeting moments that shows we're heading in the right way but we're also capitulating too much, where we lose the plot and allow the opposition to score too freely. We have to do something about it.
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"Everybody has had a chance and I may have to say to one or two of them that I might have to move you out to try and get more in in January. Moving people out and bringing people in could be the only way forward for me. I was hoping it wouldn't be, but it certainly looks the case now."
Sunderland found themselves 3-0 down inside 22 minutes with goals from Raheem Sterling, Yaya Toure and Wilfried Bony before Kevin De Bruyne added a fourth in the second half.
Allardyce was particularly irked by Sterling's opening goal as the diminutive England winger was left unmarked eight yards out to head home from a De Bruyne cross.
He said: "You've got to show resilience at away grounds in the Premier League. You've got to understand that you have stay organised and committed. We set out a game-plan to try and stop them doing what they wanted, and the players never stopped it.
"When you see Raheem Sterling scoring a header, the red flags start to wave. It's really worrying for me that someone of his size can come and score like that at the far post without a challenge on him. After that it was a question of trying to keep the score down. We came here with expectation but have delivered a negative performance.
"I feel for the fans who have travelled all this way at Christmas to see that. I apologise to them on behalf of the football club. They deserve better and the players need to stand up and show more responsibility. I don't expect to beat Manchester City, but I expect more fight."
