Squad not big enough yet - Cana

Jan 31 2010 by James Hunter, Sunday Sun

There is no doubt that losing players such as Cana’s midfield partner Cattermole, Richardson, goalkeeper Craig Gordon, defenders John Mensah and Ferdinand, and frontman Kenwyne Jones, for extended periods has had a huge impact on Sunderland’s season.

But the Black Cats are wary of being accused of using that injury list as an excuse.

“I don’t think it is an excuse,” insists Cana, who joined from Marseille for £5m in the summer. You always know that in football you will get injuries, but when you look at the number of injuries we have had you can see that it has been a huge problem.

“We have been without half-a-dozen of our most important players for virtually two months.

“And when you have to make changes to the team, it means that even the first-team players who are in the side find it hard to maintain their level because they are now playing alongside different players.”

Sunderland’s last league win was at home to Arsenal on November 21. Since then, they have picked up just three points from 27 and have gone from a side in touch with the Europa League places to a team just three points above the drop zone.

Cana said: “We had a great start to the season but I always knew it could not continue like that all year.

“Maybe I didn’t think it would turn quite so badly, but I knew there would be tougher times to come.

“Our goal has to be to finish in the top half and we are still not far away from the top 10, but we also know that we are not far away from the bottom three either.

“When we have our best players fit – people like Lee Cattermole and Michael Turner – I am sure we can finish the season strongly.”

The nadir for Sunderland came in their 7-2 defeat at Chelsea earlier this month – a game which saw Cana pressed into action as a makeshift centre-back, and a game which still causes him to wince with pain when he thinks about it.

“I knew there would be difficult moments when I joined here and the defeat at Chelsea was the worst I have felt,” he said. “I haven’t experienced anything like that before in my career. It was hard to take for all the players – for our own sense of pride.

“We are professionals and people come to watch us, so to lose like that . . . but I didn’t sign for the club and think that everything would be easy. I knew I was signing at the start of something, and that it would take time to build the club up.

“The players are proud to play for this big club.” Sunderland lost at Everton in midweek and now face back-to-back must-win home games against Stoke and Wigan – matches that Bruce has admitted will ‘define their season’.

Stoke are first up and, to add spice to the occasion, the Potters’ squad includes no less than SIX ex-Sunderland players – goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen, defenders Danny Collins and Danny Higginbotham, along with the midfield trio of Dean Whitehead, Rory Delap and Liam Lawrence.

Cana said: “Those players will come back to Sunderland with a point to prove and that will make it all the more difficult for us.

“Stoke have got a really good, well-disciplined team. I remember going to Stoke earlier in the season and it was a very tough game and they beat us 1-0. But we can’t worry too much about Stoke. It’s about us.”