SAM ALLARDYCE concedes Sunderland are in a “terrible position” close to the foot of the Premier League table, but claims to have seen enough from the club’s January signings to convince him they are capable of staging another ‘Great Escape’.

Tuesday’s home defeat to Manchester City means the Black Cats remain four points adrift of safety ahead of tomorrow’s testing trip to Liverpool.

Allardyce has never attempted to hide the seriousness of the situation he inherited from Dick Advocaat, and given that he has only presided over five league victories since taking over in mid-October, the Sunderland boss readily admits it will be a huge task to avoid the drop.

But having recruited five players during last month’s transfer window, and watched four of his new signings contribute to a bright display against Manchester City three days ago, he is refusing to be too downhearted, even if it means having to consciously avoid spending too much time staring at the bottom half of the table.

“I try not to look (at the league position), because it’s ****, isn’t it,” said Allardyce, who has never been relegated as a Premier League manager despite having flirted with the drop zone on a number of occasions throughout his career. “We are in a terrible, terrible position.

“I’m not going to get down about it though, because if I get down about it, then the players are going to see and feel that. I am going to stay positive, and I’m even more positive having seen that performance on Tuesday.

“I’ll keep driving them and pushing them forward to deliver enough results to get out of trouble. The experience I’ve gained over many, many years means that although you worry and lose sleep, you know you can’t affect what has happened in the past. All you can do is review it, and then try to prepare for the next game.”

That next outing comes at Anfield tomorrow, and having admitted that Sunderland will probably have to beat one of the “big boys” to survive, Allardyce will surely have targeted the Liverpool game as a decent opportunity to spring a surprise.

Jurgen Klopp’s side have won just one of their last five league matches, and the Black Cats’ new signings showed enough on Tuesday to suggest they could make a significant impression once they gel.

Lamine Kone and Jan Kirchhoff will almost certainly retain their places in the starting XI, while Wahbi Khazri could make his full Sunderland debut after an impressive showing as a second-half substitute against Manchester City.

Khazri displayed some neat attacking touches, and delivered a series of dangerous set-pieces as Sunderland threatened to claim an equaliser, and having moulded the likes of Youri Djorkaeff and Jay-Jay Okocha into proven Premier League performers during his time at Bolton’s Reebok Stadium, Allardyce is hoping the Tunisian will eventually have a similar impact at the Stadium of Light.

“You’re talking about world-class players there, and I’m not so sure he’s world class,” he said. “If he is, it’ll be the bargain buy of the century. But he can have an impact.

“A quality player like him can have that impact in the final third, which is the hardest place to provide that quality. If he can score goals, he can be a massive bonus to us, as the likes of Djorkaeff, who played in a similar position, and Jay-Jay provided in their time at Bolton.

“He can play left or right on the frontline if we need him, and he’s just happy to play when we pick him with a big smile on his face, which is nice to see.”

Allardyce was equally impressed with Kone’s performance while attempting to shackle Sergio Aguero on Tuesday night, even if he accepts there will continue to be a degree of inconsistency to the centre-half’s performances as he continues to acclimatise to life in the Premier League.

“We’ve got to be encouraged by Lamine’s debut, but there’s a long way to go yet,” he said. “There will be stumbling blocks along the way, but it’s nice to see how well he did.

“There’s so much placed on one performance in this country – it wasn’t so long ago that Jan Kirchhoff was being slagged off after he came on against Tottenham, and then he put in a man-of-the-match performance against Manchester City.

“We want Lamine to maintain that level of performance for the rest of the season, and to find that consistency. But the new players have had an impact, and we hope Kone will continue at that level.”

Allardyce confirmed Adam Johnson is available for tomorrow’s game at Anfield, even though his trial over three alleged offences of sexual activity with a child and another of grooming is due to begin at Bradford Crown Court next Wednesday. However, Yann M’Vila is a doubt after he injured his foot in the closing stages of this week’s game.

“Our only doubt from Tuesday is Yann, with a last-minute tackle from Aguero in the corner,” he said. “He has bruising on his instep. It’s a case of whether the pain can be tolerated or not. He won’t recover fully, but it’s whether he can tolerate the pain or get his boot on.”