DAVID MOYES is hoping Sunderland owner Ellis Short will help him in his bid to keep Premier League football at the Stadium of Light by sanctioning much-needed transfer business in January.

The Black Cats returned to the foot of the table after losing 2-0 at Liverpool on Saturday and they have another six matches before the transfer window opens. The position they find themselves in at that stage could have a bearing on what deals can be done.

It is understood Short is not willing to throw a hefty chunk of money around because the club already has debts of around £140m and that is unsustainable, particularly with a threat of relegation hanging over them again.

Moyes is acutely aware of the situation but, after seeing signs in the last few weeks of progress on the pitch, he is hoping to make a few changes to his playing staff in the New Year.

“I think we need to add a level to take us up a notch,” said Moyes. “The club have always had a resolute group of players because of the way Sunderland have kept themselves in the Premier League.

“We are trying to add a bit of quality and build the club up. We’ve got to hope that we are able to add. We weren’t too far away from getting a point at Liverpool.

“It’s so important we keep close [to the teams above] but you can see in the Premier League that you never know how the results are going to go.”

Moyes may have to be creative if he wants to bring in extra players, which could mean selling. Lamine Kone, despite signing a new contract in September, would be the favourite because of ongoing interest in the £15m-rated defender from West Ham. Everton also remain keen.

There is also interest in goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, although Moyes outlined his wish to keep him if he can and thinks it would be more beneficial for him to stay on Wearside where he will play more regularly.

Pickford was relatively busy at Liverpool on Saturday, even though he didn’t have to make a string of outstanding saves because Sunderland’s defence stood firm for the majority of the game.

Divock Origi opened the scoring in the 75th minute before James Milner converted a stoppage-time penalty to wrap up the points for the Reds. Sunderland, however, still looked like a team doing better after an awful start to the campaign.

Moyes said “We’re on the training ground trying to make things better all the time. But I think once we got the first win there has been a feeling of confidence.

“We’d been a little bit unlucky a few weeks before at West Ham not to get a result there. If you look at our away form, we’d only lost by one at Tottenham, one at West Ham, 2-1 at Man City.

“In the main you can say Sunderland have not been easy to beat, not that easy to play against. I’d like to think that’s been the case against Liverpool.”

He added: “I thought the goalkeeper (Pickford) got a couple of really good crosses but I wouldn’t have said he was pulling off an awful lot of full-on saves. They missed a few chances. But that’s part of the job.

“The goalie didn’t have an awful lot to do. There was a lot going on around him but I’ve got to praise the defenders for their blocking and making sure they headed things clear and scrapping at the right time.”

At times Sunderland played with six at the back because wingers Duncan Watmore and Victor Anichebe were asked to drop deep and line up alongside the full-backs.

Moyes was satisfied with the performance, even if Jurgen Klopp claimed Sunderland were the most defensive side Liverpool had come up against.

“I believe you need to be hard working and we were that at Liverpool,” said Moyes. “I used to have really hard-working teams at Everton. Now Liverpool are a really hard-working team also.

“As well as having quality players I think they’re a hard-working team, they’ve got a good style about how they do it, good attackers. It’s a strong team and one which will challenge for the Premier League.”

Sunderland’s Jason Denayer was impressive again in midfield, and for the first half hour he was given the task of tracking Philippe Coutinho before the Brazilian was stretchered off with an ankle problem.

“We sort of put him on Coutinho at the start of the game to try to nullify him,” said the Sunderland boss. “My job was not to come here and to entertain the Anfield crowd, my job was to come here to try to get a result for Sunderland. We didn’t get it unfortunately but we tried hard to do it.

“Jason was disciplined, he’s just getting used to the Premier League and the speed of things. We’re pleased he’s beginning to have an impact with us now. He played there last week and did a good job. I think he will become a central defender, he may just need a little bit of time.”