Jenson Seelt has explained what Mike Dodds has told his Sunderland team following another defeat.
Sunderland made it five defeats in a row on Tuesday night as they were narrowly beaten by Leicester City.
The Black Cats put on a much improved performance on Wearside, but a poor opening 20 minutes saw Jamie Vardy take advantage and gift the visitors all three points.
Mike Dodds‘ side now sit ten points from the playoff positions and could be even further down the league table this weekend if they are beaten by fourth place Southampton.
Sunderland, alongside Rotherham, are currently the most out of form team in the Championship, but Jenson Seelt has admitted that both the team and manager feel like they are on the verge of bucking the trend.
Speaking to The Northern Echo, the Dutch defender said: “We have such a good group.
“We’re not negative at all. The coach is talking to us and telling us to keep going with the progress we’re making and don’t let anything from the outside affect our focus. At the moment, we’re just trying to stay really close as a group.
“We feel as though we’re close to a win, and that’s what the manager has said to us as well. We need to keep fighting until the momentum switches our way, and hopefully that’s going to be soon.”
Are Sunderland on the verge of a win?
If Sunderland played like they did in the second half of the Leicester City game against most other teams in the Championship, then they would win.
The problem is that we are incapable of playing well for a full 90 minutes – or well at all, more recently.
Even if we start with the team that ended Tuesday’s match, you can almost guarantee the likes of Adil Aouchiche won’t play like he does when he comes off the bench. Playing well isn’t the answer to our problems either, because we could play well for 90 minutes and still wouldn’t be able to find the back of the net.
We did look better against the Foxes, but that was the only glimmer of hope we have had for weeks now, and expecting us to pick up where we left off against Southampton seems like a big ask for these players. Especially given our atrocious record away from home.
One win in 13 games on the road won’t exactly fill the Black Cats with confidence this weekend.