Sunderland manager David Moyes has admitted that he expected a difficult start to his reign at the club.
The Black Cats are yet to pick up a league victory under the former Everton and Manchester United boss, sitting bottom of the table with just two points to their name from nine outings.
Moyes conceded that he had hoped for more joy during his early weeks in charge, but says that he is not particularly surprised by the way things have gone so far.
"Yes, it is, it's never easy. But I've got to say, it's part of the job and I don't think when I came here I probably expected it to be an awful lot better. I hoped it would be better, but I think deep down, I also expected it to be that way," he told reporters.
"But you know, it's a collective job now, it's not just the manager because everybody has had the focus on the manager here before. It has to be the staff, it has to be the playing staff, it has to be everybody involved in the club because yes, you can change the one guy there, but it's proved in the past that's not the answer.
"I heard somebody saying the other day that we would have had nine points if the games had finished at 85 minutes. I have to be the one who works that out and juggle about what is the reason for that."
Sunderland will take on Southampton in the fourth round of the EFL Cup on Wednesday night.
Barney Corkhill
