GUS POYET could not hide his frustration after watching his Sunderland team drop their standards having given themselves a fighting chance of stunning Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium.

The Black Cats had responded to falling two goals behind – from Yaya Toure and Stevan Jovetic – by pulling themselves level when Jack Rodwell’s header against the club he left in the summer was followed by an Adam Johnson penalty.

At that stage there was a sense anything could happen, but the reigning champions immediately went on the offensive and Gael Clichy’s centre was headed beyond Costel Pantilimon by former England midfielder Frank Lampard.

The experienced goal-scoring middle man – who could have had a hat-trick – was given too much freedom by Wes Brown to head in the winner, on the day it was confirmed he has delayed his move to New York City until the end of the season.

Poyet was not too concerned about Lampard’s decision to stay in the Premier League rather than head for City’s sister club in the United States, but did feel his players were guilty of allowing their guard to drop in Manchester.

The Sunderland boss said: “I do have a problem with that (the way it went in)! That's more something I can control. When you're playing away at the champions and you find yourself 2-0 down you need to do something very special to come back.

“After coming back we needed to do better. The disappointing thing of the performance is after going 2-2, the last, I don't know, 15 minutes, we gave the ball away too easily.

“It's Frank Lampard, we know what he does. He's going to arrive late in the box so we need to mark. We opened up the game completely and we needed our goalkeeper to be very good at the end to save us from conceding five or six.

“It's not surprising when you open up against a team of Man City's quality. We need to be realistic. We gave the champions a decent game. Sorry about the first half, it was quite boring. We needed to do something about it. After that it was entertaining.”

Sunderland had defended doggedly in the first half, which helped make the New Year’s Day game in front of a 45,000-strong crowd and TV audience a poor spectacle.

But after Toure had given Manuel Pellegrini’s side the lead, Sunderland loosened their approach, with substitutes Emanuele Giaccherini and Ricky Alvarez impressing ahead of Sunday’s FA Cup third round tie with Leeds United.

And Poyet thinks, ahead of the transfer window opening tomorrow, Sunderland are in a stronger place than they were 12 months ago.

“They gave us plenty of options going forward,” said Poyet. “We need to find a balance to let them play free and be better defensively when they're on the pitch.

“If we can get that balance, the better team you are because then you can have both actions on the pitch – offensive and defensive – in the best way.

“We have been playing with four, maximum five defenders for the last month-and-a-half. It's been tough for them, Wes Brown especially. They're trying to do their best.

“When Patrick van Aanholt is back and Anthony Reveillere as well, the options are going to be different. When we play every two or three days we can refresh.

“We are not Man City. We don't have players like Silva, Nasri and Kompany who can keep the ball for ages and not run too much. We are Sunderland and we need to do things differently. We need the squad.

“We had enough players and a good bench, one of the best during my time at Sunderland, so I'm not complaining. It's better for me when I have everybody but it's going to be difficult for the players because a few good names are going to be out of the squad.”

Poyet hopes to add to his squad before the transfer window closes, but is satisfied with the options he has in his squad already.

“Next week I think most of the players are going to be back,” said Poyet. “The next three games are going to show the real potential of this squad, when you can play two recognised full-backs, you're best two centre-halves and your best centre-forward.

“Your best team has to be on the pitch. At the moment we're changing too many things. We are missing a few players that are important for us – today it was the two defensive central midfielders against the champions. We are OK. I always say OK. For me OK is not enough. I want more but I am realistic.”