YOUNES KABOUL has delivered his own honest assessment of Sunderland’s nightmare start to the new season and claims he does not need pundits telling him how bad things have been.

The critics in the media, both in print and in broadcast, have rightly taken a swipe at the Black Cats following a disastrous opening two games in which they have lost to Leicester City and Norwich City after conceding seven goals.

Gary Neville, an England coach and Sky Sports man, did not hold back in his criticism on Monday night when he tore in to a lack of defensive cohesion in the Sunderland ranks, paying particular attention to Kaboul.

Earlier that day Michael Gray, the former Stadium of Light favourite, blasted the squad at Dick Advocaat’s disposal by claiming he would only keep Costel Pantilimon, Lee Cattermole and Yann M’Vila given the choice.

But Kaboul, a £3m signing from Tottenham, is not paying any attention to what other people have to say on Sunderland’s plight because he already knows how bad it has been – and he could barely look at the rerun on DVD.

“When you look at the goals (on video analysis), you need to learn from that and make sure that it doesn’t happen again,” said Kaboul. “You know, we’re not watching it like someone normal would watch it. We watch it in a professional way, to get better.

“We try to work on it to stop it happening again. When the goal is scored, it’s not the last pass - you need to watch the first pass. Where the goal came from, not the finish. So we work on that, and we will make sure that we get better.

“You dread watching the video (in situations like that). I would prefer to watch it back if I’d scored. But when you’re a professional, you know what can be wrong and what’s good. It can’t always be perfect, so you need to learn from that. In this world, you always learn every day at any age.

“So we’ve learned from the two games so far, and we’ll make sure that we’re ready for Swansea. It’s all about positions, and that’s why we work every day at it in training to get better.”

Kaboul has been capped five times by France and has spent the last eight years in England, so he is well placed to know how to handle the Premier League.

He has looked a million miles from the defender who had £22m spent on him since moving from Auxerre to Tottenham for £8m in the summer of 2007. He had not played a top-flight game since November 2014 after falling out of contention at White Hart Lane, but the cheapness of the goals that have gone on is are still hard to take.

“For myself, I just need to watch it again once,” said Kaboul. “You see it, because you know your game, so you see what you could have done better, how I can defend better. Then when a situation like that happens again, you know. You’re aware.”

He added: “Of course it hurts to see them, even when I concede a goal in training I’m crazy. You know, that’s normal.

“When you’re a defender, if I can have a clean sheet for 38 games I will retire! But when you concede goals, you’re not happy, obviously. We’ve conceded seven goals in two games, and that’s not good enough.”

Head coach Dick Advocaat held a meeting with the players on Sunday after the sorry defeat to Norwich on Wearside. Training has been positive since and Kaboul hopes errors have been cut out ahead of Saturday’s visit of in-form Swansea City.

He said: “I don’t know what has gone wrong, I can’t tell you, because if I had the answer we wouldn’t have lost the second game. We need to be obviously better, and we will get better.

“In the first two games we haven’t done enough to win, and that’s why we’re looking forward to the game on Saturday. We’re really impatient for the game to start, then we can crack on.”

Sunderland are pressing ahead with attempts to strengthen the squad but are finding it hard to do deals, made harder by their predicament after two successive defeats.

Utrecht striker Sebastien Haller, Liverpool front-man Fabio Borini and Celtic defender Virgil van Dijk are high in the thinking, while Emanuele Giaccherini has hinted he could leave.

Giaccherini wants to force his way back in to the Italy squad for Euro 2016. His agent, Furio Valcareggi, said: “We had a rethink on the situation that has been created in England. Time is limited and we’ll see what happens, but he is a top-level figure who needs to play consistently after a season characterised by injuries.

“Could he return to Italy? We’ll see, as anything could happen. He is certainly not lacking for offers. “He could decide his future within two days.”