GUSTAVO POYET has admitted he cannot see a short-term solution to Sunderland’s problems, and launched another attack on the section of his club’s fans who would rather see their players “running around” than “trying to pass the ball”.

Sunderland slipped back to within two points of the relegation zone as a bitterly disappointing display against QPR resulted in a deserved 2-0 home defeat courtesy of first-half goals from Leroy Fer and Bobby Zamora.

After impressive recent displays against Burnley, Fulham and Swansea City, Poyet conceded it was “typical Sunderland” to throw in such a below-par performance against a QPR side who had failed to claim a single point in their 11 previous away games.

And, not for the first time, the Uruguayan conceded he was struggling to work out how to prevent similar mishaps from occurring in the future.

“It’s a massive missed opportunity, and it’s typical us,” said Poyet. “When we are in a good situation, we always make a step back. It’s something we need to correct because it is happening too many times.

“It happened last year, and it has happened this year as well. Every time we do something all right, the next step is the worst.

“If I knew why, I would change it. If I knew, I would know what to do next time, but nobody knows. If you change six players and lose, it is because you have made six changes. If you pick the same team that played last weekend, it is because you played the same team. I keep looking and trying to find things.”

Poyet conceded his team paid a high price for a dreadful opening 20 minutes in which they could barely string a couple of passes together, let alone threaten the QPR goal.

Both of the visitors’ goals came before the interval, but rather than bemoaning the defensive errors that left gaping holes down his side’s left-hand side, Poyet appeared more intent on underlining the ineffectiveness of his switch to a 4-4-2 system at the interval.

Sunderland displayed more urgency in the second half, with QPR goalkeeper Robert Green making excellent saves to deny Jermain Defoe and Ricky Alvarez, but having previously criticised Sunderland supporters for harking back to the ‘kick and rush days’ of Niall Quinn and Kevin Phillips, the head coach once again seemed infuriated with a perceived desire from the stands for a brand of football he does not admire.

“That is what people want in the second half,” he said. “That is what they want, and they have been asking for, for a while, so maybe they need to be a little bit more proud of the team. But that craziness of the second half didn’t give us points either.

“I don’t know if that was football. I don’t define that as football. It was a desperate team running about and trying to be nice with the fans.

“You can’t analyse about passing the ball because nobody wanted to pass the ball here. Everybody wanted the players to play the ball forward – to let it bounce and get corners. It was more important to get a corner than make a pass.

“Me, I learned that if you give your team-mate an angle and pass the ball forwards, you have a better chance.

“I think it is time for everybody to sit down, reflect and learn. Then maybe we can make a big step forwards. If we keep trying to sort out problems by asking the team to do things we are not capable of doing, we are going to have this problem for years. I would like to be the one who changes things, but I cannot see it happening in a short period of time.”

QPR are poised to appoint former Swansea boss Michael Laudrup as their new manager, after talks with another target, Tim Sherwood, broke down yesterday.