Lorik Cana: SAFC travel sickness nearly cured

Dec 5 2009 by Mark Douglas, The Journal

LORIK Cana believes Sunderland are only “one match” away from rediscovering their form on the road.

The Black Cats skipper is scratching his head about why Sunderland can beat two of the ‘Big Four’ at the Stadium of Light only to lose to mid-table sides like Wigan and relegation scrappers Birmingham and Burnley.

Although he believes Sunderland need to have better “balance” between their attacking intentions and defensive responsibilities when they are on the road, he doesn’t think they are far away from curing their travel sickness. The Albania midfielder is assured of a starting role at Craven Cottage although the identity of his midfield partner is not so certain. Kieran Richardson, Jordan Henderson and Bolo Zenden are fighting for what looks like one central midfield place, with Steve Bruce set to switch to a more orthodox 4-4-2 formation in West London.

But whatever system the Black Cats boss opts for, Cana believes they need to replicate the mentality and belief that has been the foundation of their excellent home form.

“At the moment, we have not found the solution for our away form, not yet anyway,” he said. “Sometimes in football you need just one game or one small thing to change everything and I do not think we are so far away from finding this solution. We have good players and good quality, just maybe not the right approach. But one game can change a lot of things.

“We seem to have a different sort of mentality when we go away to the mentality that we have at home and we need to make sure our approach is the same both at home and away.

“In our biggest games against Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal – and our one away win – we had the right balance. We attacked well but we all defended together too. We now have to keep that all the time.”

Cana is confident that the squad has the right kind of characters to turn it around, and has been impressed in his first experience of a British dressing room. Having never played with British players before, Cana admits he didn’t know what to expect. But he has been pleased to note the heart and commitment of the Sunderland players - and the constant energy of team-mate Anton Ferdinand.

“The dressing room culture is certainly different, especially compared to France. You have music and each player prepares in their own way,” he said.

“But there are a lot of good guys here. They are all good lads. We have a good team spirit because we don’t have anyone who makes problems. That is vitally important if you want to have a good season.