Bryan Oviedo says Sunderland sometimes play a little scared

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Sunderland defender Bryan Oviedo has made some interesting comments regarding his club’s style of play.

As reported by Chronicle Live, Sunderland left-back Bryan Oviedo has claimed that the club needs to be mentally stronger following four defeats in their last five games.

The Black Cats’ struggles have been well documented over the last two seasons, and now they face the very real possibility of following in Swindon Town and Wolverhampton Wanderers’ footsteps by being relegated from the top flight to the third tier in consecutive seasons.

One man who feels as if he may have the answer to their problems is defender Bryan Oviedo, who has been at the club since last year when Sunderland lost their Premier League status.

“We need to start hard in the first second, running for every ball and fighting for every ball,” he said. “In the Championship you need to fight, you need to run and be strong in every aspect.

“We need to do what we did in the last 20 minutes from the start of the game. We were strong and fighting for every ball.

“Sometimes we play a little scared, but we need to look at ourselves because we have to be better.”

While that may not seem like a groundbreaking statement, it certainly highlights the fact that the Sunderland dressing room also recognises just how bad things have gotten over the last two years.

Their demise and the description that Oviedo used is ironic, too, given that Sunderland was known around the world for their ability to get themselves out of tricky situations such a relegation battles.

For years they managed to stay up by the skin of their teeth, and in the present day, they will have to do the same thing in order to maintain their position as a Championship team.

There are even certain comparisons that have been made to the team that Roy Keane inherited back in 2006 when he guided them from the relegation zone all the way to the title. While that makes sense to a degree, Sunderland’s situation in 2018 is much more worrying than in the past.

As we all know far too well the Championship rests for no man, and there are no easy games in this division. With that being said, home clashes against Ipswich Town and Brentford sandwiched between a trip to Bristol City should be seen as big opportunities to pick up some points.