AFTER a winless start to his reign at the Stadium of Light, Sunderland manager David Moyes thinks his players could soon have to take greater responsibility for the club’s failings over the last few years.

Moyes, who has spoken openly since arriving in the summer about the task he faces to turn things around, is keen to make the Black Cats a more stable and sustainable model under his watch.

In his bid to keep Sunderland in the Premier League this season he has made changes to his squad, but history suggests it will take time to turn things around.

Moyes is heading towards joining his predecessors in failing to win a league game during August or September; a record the team have not done since 2012 when they beat Wigan.

That is a run of 23 matches and Sunderland only have tomorrow’s trip to Tottenham and the visit of Crystal Palace on September 24 to address it.

The bigger picture is that Sunderland have also only won 35 league matches in four years, less than 25 per cent, and he does not want to face another great escape, after Sunderland have emerged from four brushes with relegation in a row with top-flight status intact.

Moyes said: “I am certainly up for the challenge. When I came in I wanted something that excited me. I would like to say this is really exciting. It’s not quite what I had hoped, but there has to be a realistic element to this.

“It is a building job, we are up against it undoubtedly. We have a great chance to prove ourselves and show what we can do. We are in a part of the season where we can’t sign players so we have to get on the training ground and get on with it.

“The players here need to step up a level, they need to show this is not their level. Maybe soon you will say ‘it’s nothing to do with the managers and it’s the players’, so they have to lift their levels and prove they are good players.”

Sunderland head to White Hart Lane smarting from a defeat to Everton which was inflicted by an 11-minute hat-trick from Romelu Lukaku in the second half. It means the Wearsiders have won just 20 home games from the last 76, to further highlight why they are perennial relegation strugglers.

Moyes said: “Maybe you people who have watched Sunderland longer than I have can point out, is it correct leadership from the top? Has correct direction been given?

“I always used to think winning three games on the trot, you only need to do that twice, and you are already really close to being home, or at least not far away from being safe, after that you need to build on winning games.

“Most managers probably have to come to Sunderland on a bit of the defensive, on the back foot. You are not coming in here smiling, on top of it, being really positive, you are nearly always trying to put out the bush fires, stop things getting worse all of the time. I can see that.”

Moyes, despite three defeats and a draw at the start of his tenure in the North-East, has seen enough in the opening six weeks of the campaign to be encouraged. He has brought in a number of new recruits and feels new-look Sunderland have not been outclassed despite the poor form.

He said: “It’s probably a building job here to improve things. We have to quickly learn to get better. We have to lift the levels and that is what we have to try to do and try to pick it up again.

“We have to somehow find a way of getting that level up, showing we can compete and to be fair – apart from the last half hour against Everton – we have competed pretty well in the games.”