Sunderland 0 Southampton 1

SAM ALLARDYCE knows what he is doing as a Premier League manager, his career proves it. Solving a problem like Sunderland, however, is already proving the biggest challenge he has faced yet.

And there is no quick-fix either, which could mean the Black Cats are in even deeper relegation trouble by January 1 when Allardyce hopes to make a few adjustments to the squad during the transfer window.

Allardyce accepts that addressing Sunderland’s chronic defensive issues is the key to keeping top-flight football at the Stadium of Light, but they also need to score the goals to win games to lift them out of the bottom three.

Getting the balance right is what he must achieve before the trip to Crystal Palace on November 23, having watched slight improvements in a defensive sense diminish the positive aspects of the team’s attacking play.

Sunderland never looked like scoring against Southampton, which was in complete contrast to a week earlier when they created chances for fun at Everton but still ended up losing 6-2.

This time around they kept the Saints at bay, with a couple of great goalline clearances and good saves from Costel Pantilimon, but they did not have the invention in the final third to unlock the visitors; mainly because of the tactic to pack Sunderland’s half of the pitch.

So when Yann M’Vila needlessly dived into Ryan Bertrand with 21 minutes remaining to concede a penalty, converted by Dusan Tadic, Sunderland’s plan to shut Southampton out and try to nick a goal was finished and Allardyce’s side were chasing the game.

To be four points adrift of safety after 12 games is already a huge deficit to overcome, particularly when it is hard to imagine where and when the second league win of the season will arrive. And Stoke and Watford – the next two teams to travel to Wearside – will fancy their chances, just as Ronald Koeman’s men did.

Southampton defender Jose Fonte said: “We came with a philosophy playing on the emotions of the situation Sunderland are in. They are at the bottom of the league. We knew the fans could turn on them, and the longer it went on the worse it could get for them if we kept the ball like we did. We wanted to capitalise on the tensions here.”

By the time the final whistle had blown, and Fabio Borini had seen Sunderland’s solitary shot on target saved, there were more empty seats than full ones in the Stadium of Light, which is another indication of the frustrations being felt around the club.

But Younes Kaboul, who turned in another decent display at the heart of the defence after his poor start to life in the North-East, is convinced that such strong feelings will help Sunderland turn things around.

He was part of the Portsmouth team which stayed up in 2009 when that included a 3-1 victory over Sunderland at Fratton Park in the penultimate game of the season.

“The biggest negative is that we are near the bottom, in the relegation places,” said Kaboul. “But the positive is that the people really care here about the club. I have known that before at Portsmouth, it’s similar. The people who work at the club, and the fans, are amazing.

“The mentality, love and dedication to the club from everyone around here, I find that amazing. That helped when we stayed up with Portsmouth. You have the support from the fans, the town. Up here, the people live for the club so we have to respect that. We are aware of that and we want to deliver for them.

“We have some great players here in the squad. We just need to click on the pitch. In a game like this, if you score before them you will win the game.”

Southampton, who have their own eyes on a European spot, are undefeated away from home so it was always going to be difficult for Sunderland. The visitors would have been ahead in the first half but Pantilimon made fine stops to deny Tadic and Sadio Mane.

After the restart it was more of the same and Sunderland were indebted to two brilliant goalline clearances from DeAndre Yedlin and Sebastian Coates before Southampton got the breakthrough courtesy of M’Vila’s foul on Bertrand as he headed for the byline.

Tadic’s penalty was enough to inflict an eighth defeat from 12 on Sunderland and the bookmakers have made them the clear favourites to go down, with some offering odds as short as 1/7.

Kaboul said: “We are not affected by that. In football, outside of the pitch people will talk and say that Sunderland will go down. We don’t pay attention to that. We just concentrate on ourselves.

“Do we need another great escape? We are still in November with a long way to go. We know where we are and we are working hard to resolve the situation.

“It is difficult to get the balance right. The most important thing in football is to be solid because you can always score from set pieces.

We defended very well from start to finish but we lost. Now we have two weeks until the Crystal Palace game to sort things out.

“Sam is the right man to do that. He has unbelievable experience in the Premier League. He knows how to coach, he has a big brain. He works with us in training but it is tough because he has just come in and we have to make changes. We all have to adapt to those changes and start to win football matches.”