DICK ADVOCAAT was not as frustrated as many people would think after watching Sunderland suffer a first-half collapse against a rampant and expensively assembled Manchester City side in the Capital One Cup.

Despite a few encouraging moments from an attacking point of view, the Black Cats were knocked out at the third round stage because goals before half-time from Sergio Aguero, Kevin de Bruyne, a Vito Mannone own goal and Raheem Sterling led to a 4-1 reversal.

But Advocaat, whose side are also bottom of the Premier League after failing to win any of their opening six games, was not in any mood to whinge about his team’s performance ahead of this Saturday’s trip to Manchester United.

“I'm not angry because I've seen the goals we gave away. I'm not as negative as maybe people expected,” said Advocaat. “I was pleased with the players' 90 minutes for Adam Johnson, Ola Toivonen and Yann M'Villa, they all played 90 minutes. That’s important.

“The way Lee Cattermole came on for the second half, he showed more promise than in the past – he was aggressive, simple. He showed he should be there.

“Manchester City are a great side. They had Kevin de Bruyne who was very good. But he cost only £55m, you could buy our whole stadium for that! They have so much quality, you saw their bench.

“But that’s not important. We know we need 40 points and we have United and West Ham now.”

Sunderland could have scored themselves in the first half. Fabio Borini had an effort harshly ruled out for a foul on Nicolas Otamendi, while City keeper Willy Caballero made a stunning one-handed save to deny a header from Ola Toivonen.

The Swedish international did grab his first goal since completing a loan move from Rennes seven minutes from time, with a glancing near post header from debutant DeAndre Yedlin’s right-wing cross.

But Sunderland, like so often this season already, were made to pay for some poor defending for all four goals.

Advocaat said; “I can believe it. Maybe you think I'm negative but I'm not. I’m negative that we lost 4-1 but I think the way we played in the first 25 minutes was very positive. I'm not really happy with way we gave goals away.

“There is no sense to attach names to the goals but everyone could see the mistakes, simple mistakes. At this level it is not possible to do that. But before that at 1-0 we had a good chance to score. At the moment not everything is rolling our way but that will change.

“I don't want to point out individuals but I think the way we started attacking them, until the penalty, they didn't have a chance. After that they started and the goals for two and three nil we gave away. Then you have to be careful it's not four, five or six. In the last 15 minutes of the first half they showed the quality they have. They are a great team, great individuals.

“I said at half-time ‘you have to show commitment not only as a team but individuals because if you go on as you did for the last 15 minutes they will score four goals more’. They worked really hard, you could see that from the fans because they stayed until the end, but the quality from the other side was too much.”

Advocaat was disappointed that Borini’s goal did not count, which would have cancelled out Aguero’s ninth-minute penalty.

He said: “”I said the same on Saturday, the ball's not rolling for us, it’s also the referees etc, etc. You need a little bit of luck to go one in front but everything is going the opposite way for us at the moment.

“I was more angry at Bournemouth because this was totally different in quality and if we score at 2-1 it's a totally different game.

“I wanted to see Borini in the middle. I had to see if he convinced. I don't know yet, I have to think about that. But everyone deserves an extra chance, not one chance.”