DAVID MOYES has denied his negative tactics are hampering Sunderland’s chances of Premier League survival, and reiterated his belief that the club will haul themselves out of the bottom three despite their increasingly catastrophic position at the foot of the table.

The Black Cats find themselves seven points adrift of safety after Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at Watford came on a day when they relegation rivals, Hull, Crystal Palace and Leicester, all won.

Miguel Britos’ second-half header condemned Sunderland to defeat at Vicarage Road, and Moyes’ side have now failed to score in seven of their last eight matches.

They barely mustered a threat at the weekend, with Moyes’ decision to leave Didier Ndong and Wahbi Khazri on the substitutes’ bench coming in for sustained criticism from the away support. Both Ndong and Khazri were cheered raucously when they came onto the field, with Adnan Januzaj being subjected to a cacophony of boos when he was replaced.

Khazri has become something of a ‘cause celebre’ for the Sunderland support. The Tunisian played a key role in last season’s ‘Great Escape’ under Sam Allardyce after arriving from Bordeaux last January, but has made just four Premier League starts in the current campaign under Moyes.

Despite Sunderland’s chronic lack of success in front of goal, the last of those starts came in October, but Moyes denies his refusal to change a system that is clearly not working is a major factor in the Black Cats’ current plight.

“First of all, if you can’t defend and keep them out, then there is no point in having attacking players on the pitch,” said the Sunderland boss, who will take his side to Leicester’s King Power Stadium tomorrow. “You have to be able to stop the goals going in.

“We have to do that and give ourselves a chance, because there have been a lot of games this season where we haven’t. Recently, we’ve looked a little better defensively, and because of that, we’re having to try and create chances when we can.

“But we are playing with Fabio Borini, Adnan Januzaj and Jermain Defoe – we have probably only got one more attacking player (Khazri) in the squad that we have available. So you can’t turn around and say we are not having a go.”

Moyes clearly does not trust Khazri, and the Scotsman has previously criticised the quality of the winger’s defensive work. His attitude towards Ndong is harder to gauge, as Sunderland’s club-record signing had been a key figure in Moyes’ first-choice midfield as recently as the start of last month.

He was dropped for the draw against Burnley, and found himself on the bench again at the weekend, with Moyes claiming Watford’s physicality persuaded him to go with Jack Rodwell, Darron Gibson and Jason Denayer instead.

The ploy did not work, and it was telling that Ndong’s 61st-minute introduction immediately provided Sunderland with the kind of midfield thrust and energy that had been impossible to discern in the opening hour.

“Ndong was definitely in contention for the game, but we had to consider the size of Watford,” said Moyes. “We had to find a team that could enable us to compete at set-pieces otherwise we might have been more goals down before we got to one down. We just didn’t have enough stature in the team to deal with what Watford had.”

Moyes must now decide whether to change things for tomorrow’s trip to a Leicester side who have won five games in a row in all competitions since the departure of Claudio Ranieri.

Ndong will surely start at the King Power Stadium, but Moyes has urged Januzaj not to hide away from the challenge of winning over his detractors. The Manchester United loanee wasted one of Sunderland’s few decent openings on Saturday when he directed an embarrassingly weak side-foot straight at Heurelho Gomes, but Moyes continues to retain faith in his abilities.

“He needs encouragement because he’s a talent, and all the players need confidence,” said the Black Cats manager. “But we are giving Adnan an opportunity and he has to take it as well. I would be the first one to say that to him.

“He has something other players haven’t – he is able to hold the ball, take people on, and is able to create things, which we don’t have in the team. He is someone who can do that.”

The upshot of Saturday’s defeat is that Sunderland are seven points adrift of safety with nine games remaining, three of which are against Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea.

“I don’t know about miracles, but we know they do happen, and they’ve happened a couple of times at Sunderland recently,” said Moyes. “But we know we need to win games.”