Michael Beale addressed the media ahead of Sunderland’s short trip down the A19 to face local rivals Middlesbrough in the Sky Bet Championship.
Here’s what the Gaffer had to say…
On Sunday’s opponents Middlesbrough...
If you look at the last six games in the league and the form table, we're fifth and they are sixth. It’s two teams with the same number of points who are riding high with the same ambition.
We know what happened in the home game so we certainly want to perform well, and we will need to be at our best against Middlesbrough.
I think Michael Carrick has started his management career well and in the last month at home, they have suffered a narrow defeat to Aston Villa and beat Chelsea.
On the January transfer window...
Three really good players have come in and they were all targets for the club. I know the three players well; Leo is a player I saw breakthrough in Scotland originally and has since come down to Leeds.
He has had a nice loan at Motherwell, he's highly thought of in his international set-up as well and he gives us a really good balance. He is a left-footed defender, who can play full-back so we think we have signed a really good player at the right moment.
Romain had an excellent academy journey with Tottenham before going over to Standard Liege and he's a player that's been on the club's radar for a while and he gives us good versatility in the wide areas.
Callum Styles is an excellent football player that will benefit the club and he has played several times for his national team. He will go to the Euros with Hungary as a midfielder but can also play as a wing-back and full-back.
On his squad since arriving at the club...
The players have been fantastic from the first day that I came in and have taken on board my ideas.
We have made subtle changes and certainly, at the weekend it was probably the most we have seen in terms of the set-up and how we want to play moving forward which I think will give us more goal threats.
The one thing I've been happy with is mixing up the goalscorers a little bit in our last few games. The weight has not always been on Jack (Clarke) which I think is important.