Sunderland manager David Moyes has declared that his side were "dire... really, really bad" in their 4-1 thumping at Burnley this afternoon.

The result left the Black Cats marooned in the bottom three of the Premier League after a first half of the season in which they have suffered 13 defeats in 19 games.

"We were dire today, really really bad," Moyes told reporters at his post-match press conference. "It was a poor performance, and defensively especially we were all over the place. You have to do the old-fashioned defensive things well and we didn't.

"My players were well-briefed on the opposition and you just have to hope they take that into the game. We made the same mistakes time and time again; missed headers, missed bouncing balls, the same stuff. The players have to take responsibility as well as me, and that was dire, as bad as anything I have been involved in here. I can't walk into the dressing room and say 'Yeah, that was great lads.' It wasn't.

"We have to stick in together, but today defensively we were poor. We threatened at times going forward but we couldn't defend. You can ask me questions about myself and my future, that's fine. We're in the bottom three, I know that."

Next up for Moyes's men is a tough home encounter with title-chasing Liverpool on Monday afternoon.