Sunderland suffered an emphatic 5-0 defeat at home to Celtic less than a week before the start of the new Championship season.
Simon Grayson has suggested that the one positive that Sunderland can probably take from their defeat to Celtic in their pre-season friendly was the performance of Lewis Grabban, the Sunderland Echo reports.
The Black Cats would have surely left the supporters feeling rather pessimistic with less than a week to go before they start their Championship campaign with a home clash against Derby County this Friday.
Sunderland loanee Lewis Grabban pictured during his spell with Reading
The Scottish Premiership side ran out 5-0 winners at the Stadium of Light, so unsurprisingly Grayson had very little to be pleased about – though he did reserve some praise for Grabban, who recently arrived on a season-long loan.
“We had a little bit of a positive in Lewis Grabban – I thought he was probably the best player we had in our ranks, but we have to be better collectively,” he said, as reported by the Sunderland Echo.
Grayson perhaps faces an extremely difficult task in the coming days as he looks to pick his players up after such an emphatic and disappointing defeat.
Based on the options he has available, it would not be out of the question to suggest that the majority of the players who started against the Hoops were being lined up to also start against the Rams later this week.
Therefore, Grayson now faces an extremely difficult decision on whether to ring the changes and perhaps select some of those who were down the pecking order, or take a gamble on those who may well now be bereft of confidence after the weekend in the hope that they feel that they have a point to prove.
Sunderland manager Simon Grayson
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