XHAKA POST FOREST

Granit Xhaka shared his thoughts after Sunderland's implosion at the SoL.

TOUGH NIGHT

“Very tough. It’s difficult to find the right words now but the only thing I can say is to apologise to the fans. What you saw today is not the team you have seen all season. This is part of our journey, it’s part of the team where we can process it and improve ourselves individually and as a collective. Hopefully this will not happen again.”

LEARN FROM IT

“Thankfully we have time to recover and reflect and to see ourselves in the mirror, to analyse it and say it was not good enough. We must not forget where we’ve come from, I was saying before the game that the season is a marathon and not a sprint. Sometimes these things happen, it’s painful for sure but we need to recover now and come back stronger, to give the fans what we’ve given them all season and react.”

EASY GOALS

“We had a couple of games where we did not play well but we took some points. I think the goals we conceded were too easy and we didn’t do the basics right - if you don’t do the basics in this league, or anywhere in the football world, you get punished. We were punished so quick in the first half and after 4-0 you need a lot of luck and everything else to come back. At least we tried, but it was not good enough today.”