“If I need to criticise a player I’d pull him individually I wouldn’t do it in front of people.” It is an approach that will leave Sbragia open to criticism if Sunderland fluff their lines in today’s latest examination of their mettle.

It promises to be a tense afternoon at the Stadium of Light, although the traditional response of the Wearside public has been to rally around their football club at such critical moments.

There was a unity at Sunderland that encouraged chairman Niall Quinn last week, and Sbragia believes a similar attitude will give them the best chance of securing three points from a game he has branded “must win”.

“We’ve got to try and take that pressure off the players. It’s a huge game – they know that and we can handle playing at home,” he said.

“They know the importance of the game and what it means to the club and to them in general.

“Saturday gave us a bit of belief if we’d have lost by a lot it would have been difficult to lift them. We should be higher up in the league but the table doesn’t show that.

“They seem very buoyant and I don’t know if it’s quite hit them yet. You sometimes get a feel for it if it’s a bit quiet in the dressing room.

“After West Ham we felt really down as we felt that was a chance to get some points. But they set themselves a standard against United and we can’t drop below that.

“We’ve spoken about that and we know it will be different against Hull. There’s still belief, there’s not a lot of doubters in our dressing room and there’s belief in the camp we can move up the table.”