Di Canio's Sunderland overhaul

Paolo Di Canio's Sunderland overhaul has the goal to give club new culture and attitude. Fining players which didint attend shirt-signing sessions or arrive late for team meetings isn’t a new into more structured clubs. Maybe it is in a club like Sunderland, where former managers Martin O'Neill and Steve Bruce embrice a more soft approach with first-team players. Changes was both in and out field. Under new director of football Roberto De Fanti and new technical director Valentino Angeloni, Sunderland already brought in midfielder Cabral and defenders Valentin Roberge, and Modibo Diakité. The France-born Diakité and former Marítimo Roberge came to strenght a defence that will see Titus Bramble and Matt Kilgallon to leave when their contracts expire this summer and with Phil Bardsley's future uncertain. 

Cabral, a 24-year-old Cape Verde native but a Swiss International, is a defensive midfielder who can also play centre-back. Di Canio plans to  add a minimum of six players. New manager is monitoring also Le Havre midfielder El-Hadji Ba, Aston Villa's Andreas Weimann and Celtic’s goalkeeper Fraser Foster if current starter Simon Mignolet leaves.

The new team will be built around Adam Johnson, the winger that struggled under Martin O'Neill but flourished since Di Canio’s arrival. Stephane Sessegnon too benefit from new tactics: he was outstanding playing as attacking midfielder behind the centre-forward after the time he wasted operating as right-winger under O'Neill.

Di Canio built a new tactics attitude without the ball, with the team no more sitting deep as they did under Bruce but with new boss recommending at his players to go forward and close the ball down in a high-tempo, pressing approach. Under Di Canio, Sunderland were less worried about time of possession, asking his squad to play on fast-break. Di Canio’s attention to details played a huge part in their succesfull run as the Italian was spending hours to examine opponents, teaching his players how capitalise opponent’s weakness. And tactical training took on a huge part into Di Canio’s training week. Di Canio wants to spend as much time as possible every possible moment teaching  tactics on the training field.
The plan to rebuild concerned the club’s academy too as Sunderland parted ways with youth coach Craig Liddle after just one season at the club. The arrival of Di Canio and his staff brought on freshness and new ideas, an European-style attitude and new discipline, It worked during last couple of months. Time will say if it will work during a whole campaign.