Sunderland back in business

Gus Poyet made it in his first home game as new Sunderland's manager. Poyet is a man on mission. The goal is avoid relegation. It took time. To do it, Poyet spoke of his desire to unite the club after the turmoil following Paolo Di Canio's regime. Poyet had a lot of decisions to make. So, he started a tale of redemption for the former club's pariah Lee Cattermole and shacked the line up, adding Andrea Dossena and Carlos Cueller and dropping Emanuele Giaccherini. He lined up a stricht 4-4-2 featuring just one true winger in Adam Johnson while two forwards was paired up top in Steven Fletcher and Jozy Altidore. He build a strong central midfield in Jack Colback and Cattermole. He forced Alan Pardew, who started the game in his classic 4-3-3 formation, to shift to a more conventional 4-4-2 by the end of the half. Above all, he made the right move with the introduction of Fabio Borini. Poyet favourited a slow approach, with gradual changes. Restore team's shape and give it an identity will require time. It started for Poyet going back to basics with a very simple football approach, asking the players to run their preferred style of football. Have back a fully fit Fletcher helped Sunderland: the Scotland striker reminded yesterday why he's so important to the club. It wasn't the best performance of the season as many things have to be improved. "We need to pass the ball better," Poyet said. But it was a good start. The true evaluation to fix team's tactics will begin in the coming weeks. But there is light at the end of the tunnel. The goal is the maintainment. Whether that will be the case remains to be seen.