Sunderland were beaten 2-0 by Burnley on Saturday afternoon
Sunderland defender Trai Hume has offered his reaction to the Black Cats’ 2-0 defeat at the hands of Burnley on Saturday afternoon, as well as reflecting on how an untimely injury to Dan Ballard shaped the contest for him and his teammates.
Goals from Josh Cullen and Jaidon Anthony were enough to consign Regis Le Bris’ men to a first defeat of the new campaign, but things might have been different had Eliezer Mayenda or Chemsdine Talbi found the back of the net early on, with both going close to opening the scoring.
It was during those initial exchanges that Ballard - who enjoyed a hugely influential Premier League debut last weekend - was forced off, but Hume was quick to praise his replacement, Jenson Seelt, for the manner in which he stepped up when called upon.
What did Trai Hume say about Sunderland’s defeat to Burnley?
Speaking at Turf Moor after the final whistle, Hume said: “I thought we controlled, not all of the game, but most of the game in terms of we were in control of possession. Even out of possession, I thought we were comfortable. In the first half, we have two good chances that in the Premier League you need to take and if you don't, you'll get punished. Obviously we conceded a goal at the start of the second half and then they go with a more defensive setting. We’re looking to try and get back in the game when they catch us on the break. So it's just one of those things really.
“We'll analyse it and go over it during the week but we won't overthink it. We have another game on Tuesday in the cup and we have Brentford on Saturday so obviously we'll analyse the details of what went well and what went wrong and we'll stick together and we'll just go again. That's all you can do really.”
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He added: “Remember we played West Ham last week... we had three chances and we scored three goals. We were ruthless against West Ham. They have two chances and they score two goals and we have our chances and we don't score them. It's just the little details that we need to work on and even in the second half when we have a lot on the ball, we struggle to create because they're in a 5-4-1 and they tighten it up. They're tightening their box well and credit to them, they defend it well but we need to find a way to create more chances for them.”
When asked about Ballard’s injury, the full-back continued: “It's one of those things where you don't want to see anyone get injured, but obviously Jenson Seelt came on and I thought he did well. He's played well against West Ham as well and he was unlucky to be left out today, but he's had his chance again today and I thought he did well.
“But obviously for Ballard it's not what you want. It's not ideal. You don't want players getting injured. It's something we'll just have to deal with, and focus going forward.”
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