JERMAIN DEFOE has urged his Sunderland team-mates to take a leaf out of Manchester United’s book as they look to kick-start their season with a positive result at West Ham this weekend.

The Black Cats head to West Ham’s new London Stadium home rooted to the foot of the table, and are already four points adrift of safety as they continue to search for their first Premier League win.

On Monday, Manchester United took on Liverpool in one of the most eagerly-awaited top-flight games of the season, and while their conservative approach was criticised in some quarters, Jose Mourinho’s side emerged from Anfield with a creditable away point.

What is good enough for Manchester United should be good enough for Sunderland, and while Defoe would like to see his side playing attractive, attacking football in the future, he admits their current priority has to be grinding out a result.

“I watched the game on Monday night,” said the Black Cats striker. “This is Manchester United we’re talking about, Jose Mourinho, one of the best managers in world football and has been for years.

“The goalkeeper (David De Gea) got the ball, the two centre-halves (Eric Bailly and Chris Smalling) pushed on, and they hit it long. Throw-ins? They didn’t throw it to a midfielder, they threw it towards the corner flag.

“They were organised and disciplined, and you say, ‘It’s not a Manchester United team – the way they’ve played over the years’.

“Our players (can) watch that and think that if teams like that can do it, then maybe we can go away from home and instead of trying to press people, just sit back, frustrate people and try to hit them on the counter-attack. Try and get our goals like that – just be solid like we were last year.”

Defoe contrasts Manchester United’s error-free approach at Anfield to the mistake-laden performance that saw Sunderland lose at Stoke last weekend.

The Black Cats switched off twice as Joe Allen claimed a first-half double, and their mistakes eventually resulted in a sixth away defeat of the season.

“I felt like we were the better team when we first started,” said Defoe, in an interview with Sunderland's official website. “Then we gave away, in my opinion, stupid goals, goals that we would never have given away last season.

“When the ball drops on the edge of the box, just be disciplined and kick it away. It’s not even hard. Kick the ball away. It doesn’t have to be pretty away from home, it doesn’t matter.

“The pressure was on Stoke, and then we’re trying to play one-twos on the edge of our box. It’s schoolboy errors. So I think it’s important that we just be disciplined and all do our jobs.”

Sunderland are finally beginning to see some light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to injuries, with Adnan Januzaj ahead of schedule as he recovers from ankle ligament damage.

It was originally feared Januzaj would be sidelined for at least six weeks after he injured his ankle in the home defeat to Crystal Palace, but the winger has already stepped up his recovery in the gym and could be involved in either the home game with Arsenal a week on Saturday or the following weekend’s trip to Bournemouth.

“Adnan is feeling much better, and he doesn’t think he will be out as long as we initially thought,” said David Moyes. “Hopefully, we can get him back sooner.”