Losing to Burton Albion shows that Sunderland remain a work in progress

The club has undergone significant change in the past few months, new personnel from the boardroom to changing room taking on the challenge of turning around what for years has fundamentally been a failing football club.

Yet there remains significant hurdles to cross.

Owners Stewart Donald, Charlie Methven and Juan Sartori continue to navigate a melee, the latest episode seeing Papy Djilobodji last week being ditched for being a monumental waste of time and money, and the hierarchy face further challenges in the months ahead as they attempt to cut the highest wage bill in League One.

It dwarfs the expenditure of the likes of Burton Albion, yet there was little evidence of a gulf in resources at the Pirelli Stadium, where a poor Sunderland side skidded off the track, losing their unbeaten record in the process.

Burton did the damage in the first 45 minutes, 2-0 ahead on merit and not for the first time this season Sunderland looked disjointed and were vulnerable at the back.

That there was apparently so little fight once Sunderland were a goal behind was alarming too.

Jack Ross questioned his players’ physical approach, pinpointing it as a factor in losing, but dismissed the notion of complacency.

He said: “I would be entirely honest with you if I thought there were any players in there that believed they had the divine right to be successful in this league and the divine right to come to Burton and win.

“I said to them at the end of the game you have to have that mental and physical synergy and I think at the moment mentally we’ve got the right approach, I don’t think there’s any doubt about that, but I think physically we’ve not. I think physically we’re wilting in that opening period.

“I don’t think we’re preparing ourselves for contact enough and preparing ourselves to use our bodies in that period. Sometimes you don’t realise how physical the game is and that’s at all levels. Even teams that pop it about still have a physicality about them.

“That’s not because we’ve not got physicality because that team on Saturday was arguably getting towards the biggest and strongest we’ve named in an actual physical sense. We just need to get better at that.

“We’re probably encouraging teams to gain territory. That’s something we’ve spoken about and practised but they need to then produce it out on the pitch.”

Sunderland have been far from convincing on previous occasions, despite results indicating otherwise, as Ross’ side has not yet gelled, and being without some of his favoured players due to fitness issues has hardly helped.

Already without Max Power due to suspension, on Saturday it was cruel luck that Charlie Wyke was stretchered off before half-time in his first league start after recovering from a knee problem.

It is hoped that he has not sustained an injury as serious as it looked after Burton’s debutant goalkeeper Dimitar Evtimov clattered into the striker midway inside the home side’s half.

By this stage Burton were 2-0 up, Sunderland having conceded the first goal of the game for the sixth time this season. However, unlike the previous five times there would be no recovery.

It was 1-0 on 19 minutes. Sunderland were frequently exposed down their left, and it was via this flank that Albion attacked, leading to Marvin Sordell crossing, Jack Baldwin diverting the ball into Jamie Allen’s path and the midfielder pounced on the loose ball to score.

The second goal was also a familiar one to Sunderland, coming via a set-piece, unmarked defender Kyle McFadzean heading powerfully beyond Jon McLaughlin after meeting David Templeton’s free-kick, to leave Ross frustrated.

He said: “I would never shy away from the work we do on the training pitch. It doesn’t guarantee success but the important thing is not to throw your toys out of the pram or to blame the players.

“There is a responsibility from me to hammer home the message and keep doing it.

“We’ve worked on it so much over the last few weeks and we’ve still conceded, so we’ll do it again and keep on doing it until we stop conceding because it is a cheap was to concede goals.”

Early in the second half, which Sunderland started terribly and were fortunate to fall further behind, Ross replaced the anonymous Jerome Sinclair with Aiden McGeady.

The winger, like Wyke, is another who Ross has been waiting for, and he was quickly involved in the action, involved in the build-up to Chris Maguire larruping the ball in from distance for his third goal of the season.

And for a spell the Black Cats had their tails up, a leveller looked likely.

But it didn’t come. They ran out of ideas, Burton, now with four home wins in a row, were comfortable with Evtimov having only a shot from Bryan Ovideo to save.

While the second 45minutes were a disappointment, the first half was as bad as Sunderland have been so far. Either it was a one-off, or this new-look team and its manager needs time to continue the work in progress.