Sam Allardyce hopes for early transfer business — Sunderland

Allardyce will naturally view the upcoming January transfer window as a chance to bring some players in who can steady the ship and bring some much-needed quality to the Black Cats ranks, but arguably a more important decision that he has to make is who to get rid of?

Sunderland are five points adrift of safety, with a trip to City and Borini’s former club Liverpool visiting the Stadium of Light next week. That’s my message to the players, my ultimate drive to them: don’t leave yourself in that position again because I might not be able to avoid it and you might not be able to avoid it this time around.

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.

The 28-year-old admitted that it was “annoying” not to have worked his way into Allardyce’s plans, but the manager has said that he will get another chance to prove his worth.

“Everybody has had a chance now, everybody has had an opportunity, and obviously they haven’t done as well as they should have done”. I’m anxious about the way we played in the first 20 minutes in our last two games against Watford and Chelsea.

City also missed a penalty, with Bony firing over the bar after referee Anthony Taylor had awarded a spot-kick for a foul by Sebastian Coates on David Silva which had actually occurred just outside the area. In good news for the Etihad faithful then, the Belgium global is expected to make his return on Saturday against the Black Cats, along with Argentine right-back Pablo Zabaleta.

“It seems to be the case for us at the moment, where the last three games we have gifted teams goals. It’s hard now to think what my best team is”.

“The way we are going at the moment it is where only a win will do and the way we are going at the moment we won’t win every game”.

Allardyce, who was without centre-back Younes Kaboul, felt his defence was opened up too easily by City. If we get results, the other clubs can do whatever.

“As a team, we don’t defend as well as we should”.