Saturday 12 September 2015 15:47, UK
Sunderland manager Dick Advocaat has warned fans not to expect too much from his new recruits despite admitting his squad is now stronger than last season.
During the summer, former loanee Fabio Borini returned to the club along with Sebastian Coates, Adam Matthews, Ola Toivonen, Jeremain Lens and Younes Kaboul while Yann M'Vila and DeAndre Yedlin signed on loan.
Advocaat believes he now has more quality at his disposal but admits it may take time for some of the new arrivals to settle at the Stadium of Light.
"I think we have a better squad than last year but the problem is they came in a bit late so it is still going to take a bit of time to fix the squad in all positions," he said.
"The majority of the players we brought in were not playing for their clubs so physical-wise they are behind a lot of players and teams. They need game fitness so that is a little bit of a problem."
Borini is in line to start in the Super Sunday home match against Tottenham after being named in Advocaat's squad.
The 24-year-old could team up with Lens, who has pronounced himself fit again following a niggling knee injury, but Advocaat is keen to focus on the other new faces ahead of the visit of Mauricio Pochettino's side.
"Everybody's talking now only about Fabio, but we have four or five other players, it is always a total package, it's not about one player," he said.
"He did really well here when he arrived on loan but after that he did not play for one year, so you can't tell him, 'you have to do that' because we don't know.
"He's trained now for a week with the team and he can feel the difference because he only trained by himself.
"So what I said was, we are happy with the players we have brought in, they improved the squad, and now we have to find out what is the right balance."
Tottenham, like Sunderland, are chasing their first win of the season but Advocaat believes they are a far better team than their results suggest.
He said: "Spurs are a very good side with very good individual players and I have seen interviews with some of their players saying they might only have three points but they have outplayed all their opponents - including Manchester United.
"For me that says enough about the self-confidence of the Spurs players. But we also need the three points so that makes it a very important game for both clubs and a very interesting one as well."
