O’Shea says Sunderland must start keeping clean sheets

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Sunderland are bottom of the table and yet to keep a clean sheet this season.

Sunderland defender John O’Shea has told the Chronicle that they must rediscover the art of keeping a clean sheet to avoid another relegation battle this season.

The Black Cats have endured another disastrous start to the campaign, going without a win in their first eight games.

Saturday afternoon saw them put in their worst performance to date as they were comfortably beaten 2-0 by Stoke City.

The defeat was their sixth in the Premier League so far and left them bottom of the table, six points from safety.

It is a familiar situation for them as the club have spent the last four years battling relegation from the Premier League.

Last season saw Sam Allardyce prioritise the defence and keeping clean sheets to ensure they avoided the drop and O’Shea says they must get back to that.

“Ultimately, we know what has got us out of those positions, grinding that clean sheet out away from home knowing you will create chances,” he told the Chronicle.

“We have to look at ourselves, first and foremost and make sure we stop making those errors. Clean sheets are what has kept us in the league over the last couple of seasons.”

While their performances have not been up to scratch, injuries have also played their part in Sunderland’s poor start.

The Black Cats have the worst injury record in the league at present, with eight first-team stars, including the likes of Lamine Kone, Jan Kirchhoff and Adnan Januzaj, all out injured.

It means that manager David Moyes has not been able to name a consistent line-up so far and O’Shea believes it may have played its part.

“The team, as a unit we haven’t been able to get a consistency into the team either. That is very important,” he added.

“You have seen when we have gone on good runs there has been a consistent team selection.”

“The players that we have out, you are possibly talking five, six, seven starters. Take that out of any Premier League team and it will have a massive impact.”