Borini wants simple football for Sunderland survival

Fabio Borini insists Sunderland will rely on hard-work and effort over flamboyant football as they attempt to get out of the Premier League relegation zone.

The striker is confident that hard work and simple football will prove enough, as it has in previous seasons, to get them out of trouble once again.

With Crystal Palace winning on Saturday, the Black Cats head into their game against Manchester City six points adrift of safety.

“We’re Sunderland. We can’t play like Barcelona, and no one expects us to play like Barcelona because we’re not,” he said.

“We have to do what we did in the past few years, which is get out of where we are. We showed how much desire and effort we had to stay in the Premier League, and we need to do that again.

(Photo credit OLI SCARFF/AFP/Getty Images)

“You can look at last season, especially because we were not playing rocket-science football – it was simple, direct football to stay up.

“It was the effort we put up on the defensive side with the clean sheet to stay up. We have to do the same.

“Every time we stayed up in the past few years, it has been down to what we have done ourselves on the pitch by working together and sacrificing for one another.  That’s what kept us up – not the unbelievable football we played.”