LEE JOHNSON feels Sunderland sudden dip in form is an inevitable by-product of the club’s change in approach during the summer, but is confident his youngsters will emerge as better players as a result of dealing with the slump.

The Black Cats return to cup duty this afternoon when they host Mansfield Town in the FA Cup first round, before completing their Papa John’s Trophy group fixtures with a home game against Bradford City on Tuesday.

It is the club’s league form that has been exercising thoughts in the last seven days though, with last weekend’s 5-1 thrashing at the hands of Rotherham having been followed by a three-goal midweek defeat at Sheffield Wednesday.

The results have left Sunderland six points adrift of top spot in League One, and forced Johnson to admit that teams had ‘worked out how to play’ against the Black Cats in the wake of Tuesday’s humbling at Hillsborough.

He accepts his squad has hit a bump in the road, but claims a degree of inconsistency was always inevitable when, in conjunction with sporting director Kristjaan Speakman, he made the summer decision to assemble a group dominated by untried youngsters.

Those youngsters have largely impressed this season, but there was always a risk they would struggle to maintain their standards and Johnson is interested to see how they react to the current spell of adversity.

“It’s why they’re here,” he said. “Look at someone like Callum – if he wasn’t making the couple of individual mistakes that he’s made, then he’d be playing for Man City’s first team. It’s as simple as that.

“You’ve got to take the rough with the smooth when you’re us in this division, and with the model that we’ve gone with. The model that we’ve gone with, I’d like to think, is to plough assets into the team, the likes of Dennis Cirkin and Dan Neil, and develop those guys. Then, on top of that, we’ve taken top-quality talent, the likes of (Frederik) Alves, (Callum) Doyle and (Nathan) Broadhead, and are trying to help them improve as well.

“There was always going to be a stage in the season where this happened. We’ve had too many mistakes, in terms of the domino effect, but I think a lot of that is down to the physical and mental side of the run we’ve had.

“We’ve been a victim of our own success, but that feeling of negativity and of frustration, the players have to grow from and learn to think correctly under pressure. They have to do that more often than they have been doing in these big games.”

A small section of Sunderland’s travelling support turned against the team in the closing stages at Hillsborough, and while Johnson accepts that a certain degree of frustration is inevitable given that his side have conceded eight goals in their last two games, he maintains it is important not to lose sight of the bigger picture.

The Black Cats remain in the thick of the automatic-promotion battle, and head into tomorrow’s game still fighting on four different fronts, with a Carabao Cup quarter-final at Arsenal to look forward to next month.

“We don’t want the bumps in the road,” he said. “We’ve all been feeling down after the euphoria of the QPR game. You then want to go and continue that good form in the league. But sometimes situations can get catastrophized.

“It’s my job as the face of it, or the leader, to say, ‘Listen, calm down. This is not a crisis. We’re in a really good spot in the league. Yeah, we’re disappointed, because we wanted to go and try to extend the league form. We’ve been punched on the nose, but now it’s about how respond’.

“I think we will respond. I believe we’ve got good players coming back to fitness. Individually, we’ve still got to get three or four people right, then we’ve got that ability to fight and have that competition for places.”

Johnson will make changes this afternoon, with Nathan Broadhead set to start in attack after returning from injury as a second-half substitute against Sheffield Wednesday. Aiden McGeady is available after suspension, although it remains to be seen whether he features in the starting side.

Arbenit Xhemajli will not be involved today, but after more than a year on the sidelines, the Kosovan defender could play some part in Tuesday’s Papa John’s game.

Sunderland (probable, 4-3-3): Burge; Winchester, Wright, Alves, Hume; Embleton, Evans, Neil; Gooch, Broadhead, O’Brien.