As we all do this time of year, Sunderland manager Lee Johnson reflects on 2021 and his determination to achieve more in the year ahead...
2021 OVERALL
"First and foremost you're looking to implement what you need to do. There were big changes over the summer, there were good players already but we needed to make some slight changes in terms of how I wanted to play. That's not finished and we need to continue that. Statistically it's been a very successful calendar year, but unfortunately that means nothing. All we can do is our very best, we're working extremely hard. We try to make the club a little bit better every day."
KNOWING WHAT IT MEANS TO THE FANS
"We know that Sunderland fans, and so many of our staff who are genuine supporters, live for these match days. When we win we lift the place, and when we lose it's down."
WORKING TWICE AS HARD
"We're putting so much in and we're working double time. We've had a lot of injuries etc. recently but we've been really strong in saying, 'no victim mentality' and I think we have benefited from that stability in the team. We've put ourselves into a good position, simple as that. There's still a lot to do, honestly, the minute you take your foot off the gas..."
KEEP THE HAMMER DOWN
"On the pitch it can cover a multitude of sins (if you win) and off the pitch, if you lose a couple the cracks can quickly appear, o we need to just keep doing what we're doing. There's a lot of roles still to fill behind the scenes, and we're working hard to do that, and to interview to get the right people. We need to keep the hammer down, simple as that. It's a long project this one, taking out promotion and relegation. There's a lot to do to get us to where we want to be, and a win or two can't make us think we've cracked it. We have to drive forward."
NEVER RELAX!
"We've played some fantastic football in 2021, and the philosophy is there to see. We need to keep getting better at that, and maintain the focus. We know how quickly it can turn in football, a red card, a bad performance, couple of injuries, COVID in the camp... You can't relax, there was a saying they had when my dad was Latvia manager, 'never relax'. That's what we've got to do in this charge in the second half of the season."
POLE POSITION
"Obviously the teams behind (Rotherham & Wigan) have games in hand, but I think more importantly at this stage of the season its about performances and we've got to stay relentless, we've got to stay really calm and understand, if we have a good game, why? and if we have a bad game, why? We know we need to recruit, there's no getting away from that, we've got to get stronger because everybody else will, but we've put ourselves in a strong position going into 2022, and a Happy New Year to everybody!"
