Sunderland’s Vito Mannone praised Gus Poyet as the Italian goalkeeper believes that the Uruguayan coach is the main reason on why the club has avoided being relegated and still remains fighting in the Premier League.

“The manager has been massive for us. He himself would say it is all about the players because that’s what he does. But at the end of the day, it was him who came in and organized us, it was him who came up with the way of playing, and it was him who selected the players’’.

“He organized the club and the team properly, and towards the end of the season you saw the benefit of that. He was trying to do things right from the very first moment he came into the club, but because it takes time to adapt we were a little bit inconsistent as we tried to follow his approach. But I think you saw how well it went once we had adapted to it and we put that great winning run together which saved us and that came from the manager.” Mannone announced.

Mannone continued on expressing some suggestions for the club and their upcoming seasons as the Italian performer believes that Sunderland should hold on to the majority of their players as it will help them on accomplishing more important things in the future.

“I’m sure that we need to keep the same core of the team because I think we have a good squad. We have a great combination of talents in the team. We have players who can win you a game, but we also have players with character’’.

“Those players may not be technically perfectly yet, but they can get better, and they have already shown their value. I could run through every member of the team who kept their heads in an incredibly difficult situation’’. Mannone added on.

Sunderland managed to escape out of the bottom relegation zone and Poyet will be hoping he can avoid any further dramatic season conclusions and secure higher spots in the Premier League