Larsson: Confidence still nowhere near what it could be

Mark Holmes
Duncan Watmore: Scores Sunderland's second goal against Stoke City

Duncan Watmore: Scores Sunderland's second goal against Stoke City

Sebastian Larsson is refusing to take anything for granted after helping to drag Sunderland out of the Premier League relegation zone.

The 30-year-old Sweden international played his part in Saturday’s 2-0 victory over Stoke, which came just five days after a 1-0 win at Crystal Palace and helped ease the club up to 17th place in the table.

Sam Allardyce was quick to insist after the final whistle that the job is far from done, and that view is shared inside the dressing room.

Larsson, a veteran of the Black Cats’ increasingly miraculous escapes in each of the last three seasons, said: “That’s what it’s like down there. Unfortunately, we know it all too well.

“But two wins is massive and of course it pushes you up and it sort of sends the message that you are the team on the way up, and we need to capitalise on that and keep going because we know how quickly it can change.

“We are not going to get ahead of ourselves by any means, but we knew these two wins were massive.”

Sunderland have now taken nine points from the 18 they have contested under Allardyce, with a new-found defensive resilience having laid the foundation from which to attack games.

That has come as no surprise with the 61-year-old having built his reputation as a manager on making his teams difficult to beat, and it has instilled a confidence in the players which was so notably absent before his arrival.

“I don’t think the confidence is anywhere near as high as it can be, but obviously this week has really helped, there’s no doubt about that,” Larsson said.

“When you feel a bit more secure, you don’t feel like you are giving chances away constantly and worrying about conceding a goal, that really helps and that’s probably the one thing we have worked the most on.

“We are trying to get back to being a bit more solid and then trying to win the game, which we have managed to do, six points in six days, which is great for us.”