Black Cats’ boss determined to transform players into winners

Paolo Di Canio insists he doesn’t need a shrink to instil a winning mentality in his players – because he is the best psychologist they could wish for!

Sunderland’s  head coach is determined to change the mindset on Wearside and transform his players into winners.

But he has no intention of adding a sports psychologist to his backroom team, pointing out that the best managers can get into the minds of their players – citing Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson and Real Madrid’s Jose Mourinho as examples.

Di Canio said: “Employ a sports psychologist? No!

“I think it is down to me as I know the players and how to approach them.

“It is up to me to handle them after they win or lose, not a psychologist.

“In terms of ambition and desire, that comes from the manager. From me, from Ferguson, from Mourinho.

“It comes from the leader. I lead them. It comes from me and if I see someone who is relaxing I can say ‘come in here [to my office]’.”

But Di Canio admits even his psychology skills do have some limitations.

“I don’t want to say they [sports psychologists] shouldn’t work in the sport as they can help if a player has got some difficulty in some areas, just not to improve their ambition or desire,” he said.

“As I say, I don’t want to say you can’t use psychologist if someone has a problem outside football that is reflecting on his football.

“Some footballers panic when they can’t drive a car and I can’t help them. I had one player at Swindon who couldn’t drive on the motorway - he was OK on normal roads but not on the motorway! I can’t help there. A psychologist would have the knowledge to help.

“But in football matters,   I have the experience to   know what I am doing.”

Back-to-back victories against Newcastle United and Everton made it two wins from his first three games for Di Canio, and saw the Black Cats put some distance between themselves and the drop zone.

But last Monday’s 6-1 thrashing at Aston Villa brought their revival to a shuddering halt, with Di Canio blaming that defeat partly on complacency.

They now go into tomorrow’s game against Stoke City at the Stadium of Light needing a win to regain their momentum, but Di Canio remains convinced that his side will scramble their way to safety.

“I know why it [the Villa defeat] happened, but we have to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” he said. “When I came here, I said we will decide our future in these next two home games against Stoke and Southampton, and I think that is still true. If we win tomorrow, we will reach 40 points and that will almost certainly be enough for us to stay up.”

Di Canio has already beaten Stoke once this season, after masterminding a 4-3 Capital One Cup win at the Britannia Stadium in August while in charge at his previous club Swindon Town.

And with Premier League – rather than League One – players now at his disposal, he is convinced he can emerge victorious once again.

He said: “Knowing Stoke’s qualities, negative and positive, can help with tactical strategy on how they play. It can help in some ways because we [Swindon] damaged them there and they [Stoke]  played with a full-strength team.

“Peter Crouch came on in the second half, but Jonathan Walters and Cameron Jerome were on the field, so they played with their starting XI.

“We won there 4-3 after extra-time, so it was a very good performance. I know how to approach them, but obviously the quality I have here now is much more than at Swindon.

“That doesn’t mean we will win easily, but it means that we can damage them.”

Sunderland will have to find a way to deal with Stoke’s physical threat, with Tony Pulis’ side crammed full of 6ft-plus players who can cause havoc - particularly at set-pieces.

But Di Canio says the Black Cats have the experience to counteract Stoke’s size advantage.

“We have to find a way to deal with it,” said Di Canio. “In open play, they can receive the ball at the edge of the box and Crouch is the main man for this.

“In set-plays they can be really dangerous because they have, not one or two, but a minimum of five big fellas - we don’t have big fellas.

“But I’m not worried in general because we have experience to handle the situation.

“You don’t have to fight to beat a big fella, you can step in front and work with your intelligence and reading of the game, but you have to stay focused.”

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