Sunderland captain http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Lee-Cattermole-c21868 has praised new manager Martin O’Neill for restoring confidence in the Black Cats side who were points away from falling into the relegation zone only a few weeks ago.
They find themselves at tenth place on the Premier League table and will go into the FA Cup fourth round against Middlesbrough as favourites to go through the next round. In the nine games under O’Neill, Sunderland have lost just two fixtures.
While Cattermole was initially sad at the fact that Steve Bruce had been sacked, the 23-year-old defensive midfielder was pleased with the change. He revealed he was constantly looking forward to opportunities to impress the new manager.
Bruce was sacked last year after he failed to lift the Black Cats up from the bottom half of the Premier League table, despite having brought in about ten players in the summer transfer window. Former Aston Villa manager Martin O’Neill was brought in to
replace him.
Cattermole said in an interview:
“It's the first time I have had a manager been sacked, and I was devastated for Steve and absolutely gutted for him.
But a new voice has come in and straight away, you just want to impress and that's what you do.”
Cattermole revealed the importance of winning games, which showed just how well a team was doing. He did not think they had changed much as a team, only that their luck had improved and that were now down to winning games they would have previously lost.
He revealed:
“But just winning games as well, people automatically start to say you are playing better.
We are just winning games. It is not necessarily everyone is playing better, it's winning games.”
Meanwhile, the Sunderland skipper also believed confidence was at an all time high because of the change in management. He urged the players to not take anything for granted and keep on working hard to ensure they retained their place at the top half of
the table.
Cattermole continued:
“The confidence is there and it's great. We have been flying. We have had a great start; it couldn't have gone any better under the new manager.
“We are playing well, we just need to keep our feet on the ground and keep working hard and not get too carried away.”
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