'Step It Up' - Robin Roefs Issues Sunderland Demand After Bournemouth Shocker

Sunderland goalkeeper Robin Roefs has called on the Black Cats to "step things up" and also have some honest conversations within the dressing room, following the deflating defeat at Bournemouth on Sunday afternoon.

Bournemouth beat Sunderland 2-0, with Marcus Tavernier opening the scoring in the early exchanges after some horrific defensive work from Omar Alderete and Kevin Danso, which saw the Spurs loanee sent off just ten minutes later after another defensive mishap between the duo.

The ten-men of Sunderland failed to wrestle back control against Marco Rose's side, and looked dishevelled defensively and out of ideas in the attacking third, with Bournemouth doubling their lead early in the second 45' after a tragic backpass from Alderete was easily intercepted to see Evanilson round Roefs and confirm the Cherries' victory.

In truth, only Roefs and Nordi Mukiele could come out of Sunderland's performance with a shred of dignity, with the Dutch goalkeeper making several strong saves to keep the scoreline down despite the embarrassingly poor performance.

Mukiele had some strong words for Sunderland, suggesting that Regis Le Bris' side have potentially "become arrogant" this season, which would be the reason for their poor start, with the defeat on the south coast now the Black Cats' fourth consecutive Premier League loss within their opening seven of the campaign.

Following Tottenham's win over Coventry City on Monday evening, Sunderland are now slumped to the foot of the Premier League table, placing substantial pressure on the Black Cats to get a victory when Leeds United travel to the Stadium of Light on Sunday.

With Sunderland heading for crisis stations, shot-stopper Roefs stressed that the Black Cats must have some "honest" conversations within the dressing room to resurrect their season, and that the onus is on the squad to match the increased expectations. And fast.

As quoted by the Sunderland Echo, Roefs said: "We need to put the work in every day and not just today to make sure we turn this around and be honest with each other. Also keep the spirits up."

On his individually decent display, he continued: "Well, obviously I don't care about this. It's just a team,

“I don't think anyone today can walk off the pitch and say I was amazing today. It's just a team effort. It's not about me. It's not about our right-back, our left winger having a good game.

"Obviously we didn't have the most easy games but we just gave away too many points against Ipswich, which we should have never lost.

"At the end, we're just six or seven games in, so we shouldn't look to the table too much. It's about the last game where we are at.

"Last season we had a flying start and we went out so good. After that we struggled a little bit so it's all going in swings.

"Obviously it's clear that we didn't start as we wanted and it's up to us to really put our heads together and step it up."

Before the weekend's home clash against Leeds, Sunderland travel to Polish champions Lech Poznan in the Europa League on Thursday evening, as the Black Cats hope to continue their winning start to the competition following their comeback win against SCU Torreense last week.

With answers needed from Sunderland boss Le Bris for the horror show on the south coast on Sunday, nothing less than a commanding win in Poznan and three points against Daniel Farke's side just three days later will suffice as the "step up" for the Stadium of Light faithful.

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