Keane Rues Defensive Mistakes

Sunderland manager Roy Keane is starting to lose patients with his sides defensive frailties.

Keane told safc.com “We did okay but we gave away two shocking goals. It was disappointing because in the second half we caused them problems.”

“When you give goals away like that away from home it’s very, very hard.”

“They were causing us one or two problems so we changed it to 4-4-2 [formation] and we came back into it. We looked strong in the second half and it looked like we would at least get an equaliser.”

“We gave away a bad goal right at the end and it made it even worse. We weren’t able to defend properly.”

“It’s not about bad luck. You make your own luck and if you defend like we did – especially in the first two minutes, defenders taking too much time on the ball and trying tricks – it’s not unlucky.”

“We just didn’t do enough. We had a good result last week and it was important we tried to build on it, especially with Tottenham making one or two changes. But we made it very hard for ourselves, as we have done on many occasions away from home this season.”

“We’re in with a massive battle and we’ll have to get on with it and roll up our sleeves.”

“We had good support again here in London and it was disappointing not give them something more to shout about.”

“Every manager in the land tells his players to concentrate from the off, to keep it tight. We tell the players – if in doubt, clear it.”

“We didn’t do it and that’s not unlucky, it’s bad defending and people have to take responsibility for it.”

“The second goal has come from the keeper, a straight ball down the middle. We’ve had it a few times this season – no one touches it and the striker is in on goal on a one-on-one situation, that’s not good enough.”

“We looked threatening which is always good, their keep made some outstanding saves and credit to him.”

“We felt we would at least get an equaliser but you have to finish the chances, you have to put the ball into the back of the net.”

“We’ve got to lick our wounds and get ready for a big battle against Birmingham.”


Vital Sunderland Says

Roy Keane is unhappy at the defensive errors that allowed Spurs to take the lead. Saying that Spurs are a much improved team to the one we met on the first day of the season and we batter them for the second half.