{"id":1109,"date":"2020-05-20T15:56:41","date_gmt":"2020-05-20T13:56:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gustavopoyet.com\/the-beginning-of-my-time-at-sunderland\/"},"modified":"2020-05-20T15:56:41","modified_gmt":"2020-05-20T13:56:41","slug":"the-beginning-of-my-time-at-sunderland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gustavopoyet.com\/en\/the-beginning-of-my-time-at-sunderland\/","title":{"rendered":"The beginning of my time at Sunderland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently, I had the opportunity to take a look back at my time with Sunderland<\/strong>, especially the encounters with Newcastle, and many more things on the What the Falk podcast. Below is a summary of what we talked about, but you can listen to the whole interview <\/span>by clicking here<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

“The situation at Sunderland when I arrived”<\/b><\/h2>\n

For me it was an easy decision to go to Sunderland. I knew that any chance for me to manage in the Premier League would likely come about because a team was not in the best form (at this point in time they were propping up the table with 1 point from 7 games). I knew going there was a risk and plenty of people warned me about it. However, I was well aware that if I could convince the players of my playing philosophy, we could achieve the objectives<\/strong>. I was able to do this at Brighton.<\/span><\/p>\n

My worries began a week after I started training with them when I found out just how many problems there were at the club. These were things that people outside of football would find difficult to understand, although for a better understanding, they are shown clearly on the \u201cSunderland Till I Die<\/strong>\u201d documentary.<\/span><\/p>\n

“The first few matches with Sunderland”<\/h2>\n

For the first half of my first match as manager against Swansea<\/strong>, we put up a good showing, we were organised more than anything, but the cracks began to appear in the second half. However, we won the second match, the derby against Newcastle.<\/span><\/p>\n

My first two weeks in charge were all about laying the foundations, but during the week of training leading up to the Newcastle<\/strong> game, you began to see an improvement, and we focused so hard on winning this game. And it paid off. In the match, the players demonstrated what we had worked on in training, and the first goal even came from a move we had practised the week before. Borini, who scored the second goal, showed me a lot in 20 minutes.<\/span><\/p>\n