“I never hide,” Gus Poyet said. He was, he suggested, a manager who took responsibility.
So Sunderland's 2-0 defeat to League One side Bradford City was his fault?
Not quite. The Uruguayan then proceeded to blame referee Kevin Friend and the media. It was a unique definition of taking responsibility.
He blamed the media for misinterpreting his comments after Sunderland’s previous loss, to QPR, as blaming the fans.
Those same supporters, tongues firmly in cheek, spent some of Sunday’s game at Valley Parade, singing: “Gustavo Poyet, it’s always our fault.”
In the blame game at the Stadium of Light, the fans are alone in being blameless. Sunderland’s mediocrity is attributable to the board, to those in charge of transfers, to Poyet and former managers, and to the players, but not to the supporters.
Sunderland have the sixth-highest average attendance in the Premier League and, according to the table, they are the sixth-worst team.
Their problems pre-dated Poyet’s arrival and many will no doubt extend after his departure, whenever that is, but he should share culpability.
In the past week alone, Sunderland have achieved the impossible by losing at home to QPR, who came to the Stadium of Light without a solitary point on the road this season.
They have four league wins, the joint-fewest in the division, and 22 goals, less than one a game.
Had Aston Villa not been so astonishingly impotent, Sunderland’s dullness would have attracted more attention. Had they not won a Tyne-Wear derby, their campaign would have been utterly joyless.
They were remarkably poor at times last season but, at least in beating Newcastle United, Chelsea and the Manchester clubs and reaching the League Cup final, there were true highlights.
This season has had rather fewer, plus the ultimate low of the club-record-equalling 8-0 defeat to Southampton.
Poyet can suggest that forced him to change his approach, to sacrifice style for solidity, but two of their six 0-0 draws came before the humiliation at St Mary’s.
That result represents an outlier – Sunderland’s sterile football is a constant. Poyet likes to espouse his purist principles, and Sunderland are a working-class club where players are expected to mirror the support by putting in a shift.
Yet, while Poyet had a point when he said Sunderland’s most successful recent team, Peter Reid’s side at the turn of the millennium, played “kick-and-rush football”, his own group have offered neither urgency nor the quality to compensate for a more measured build-up.
Instead, he has given the impression he does not understand the club.
There was no great tactical or technical sophistication to Reid’s hard-running outfit, but the prolific alliance of Kevin Phillips and Niall Quinn made them Sunderland’s most successful league side in six decades.
Demeaning their efforts was tactless.
Moreover, Reid had a clear plan. Poyet’s is harder to detect.
There were times last season when he showed tactical cleverness. Those moments have been scarcer this time around.
Sunderland have rarely suggested they can bring a slick passing game to the lower half of the league in the way Swansea City and Roberto Martinez’s Wigan Athletic did.
Instead, his signings have compounded the sense they have a mismatched squad. He inherited Adam Johnson, at his best a right winger, and Lee Cattermole, who needs to play in a central midfield trio.
He recruited Jermain Defoe, a second striker. Try finding a system to suit them all.
He brought in Ricky Alvarez, the Argentina international loaned from Inter Milan, and Jack Rodwell, the £10 million (Dh56.5m) buy, who have failed to live up to their reputations.
This has been an underlying issue for years at Sunderland where, while there have been notable exceptions such as Jordan Henderson, Darren Bent and Simon Mignolet, too many players have regressed, too many careers have stalled and too many footballers have not justified their price tags and salaries.
In a memorable rant last April when he, and most others, thought Sunderland were about to be relegated, Poyet argued the problem lay in the culture of the club.
“There’s something wrong in the football club and it’s not an excuse,” he said. “I need to find what it is. If I don’t, we’ve got a problem. I’d like to think I know what it is, but I don’t.”
Ten months on, he still doesn’t seem to know.
If Poyet felt himself a victim of Sunderland’s capacity for underachievement then, he is a contributor to it now.
His frustration is expressed all too often, and his outbursts are a reason for the air of negativity around the club.
Poor results seem to produce more excuses. No wonder fans see through them.
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