Weekend Review: Keep Defoe fit or Gus could be going down

Cold winds of reality - Sunderland manager Gus Poyet

Phil Parkinson deserved the FA Cup glory for taking League One Bradford to the quarter-finals - but Ralph Ellis says the giant-killing has proved the scale of the problems still facing Sunderland...

Gus Poyet probably knew what he was doing in leaving Jermain Defoe at home when he went to Bradford in the FA Cup.

A gluepot of a pitch, a League One side who were certain to be physical, it wasn't the place to play the one man who can keep the Black Cats away from relegation. The former Spurs star has always looked after his fitness but at 32 he'll still be bringing himself back up to Premier League standard and it was too big a risk.

In fact if Sunderland didn't realise it before, they know now. They have to keep their new 80,000-a-week forward wrapped in cotton wool between games until the end of the season. With him they might score a goal win a game or two - without him they are struggling big time.

The performance at Valley Parade was one of those that divides fans and manager. Poyet probably saw it as a game that didn't matter too much because his big brief is to make sure his team stay up rather than win the FA Cup. For the supporters who trekked down to see such a dismal display, it was pretty much an insult.

When you look at the Opta stats for most Premier League games, even the ordinary players tend to average around 80% or slightly more for their passing accuracy. If they hit, say, 32 passes during the game then they'd expect at least 26 of them to arrive at the feet of somebody wearing the same colour shirt.

At Bradford both Adam Johnson and Seb Larsson, two of the club's best and most creative players, recorded just 16 out of 32 passes on target. And they weren't the worst. Defender Billy Jones registered just 44% accuracy, while even the top passer Liam Bridcutt recorded only 59.3%.

Now I know stats aren't everything, but from all accounts of those who saw the whole game, rather than just the TV highlights, if the numbers made it look a bad display, the reality was even worse. And it didn't help the mood of the travelling fans that Poyet was seen laughing and joking on the touchline before the end.

A derby win over bitter rivals Newcastle and Defoe's two goals in three Premier League games have rather disguised the fact that Sunderland are still in big trouble. They are as long as 5.79/2 to get relegated and right now that looks the best value among the teams from 14th place downwards.

Poyet's season at the Stadium of Light has not been a happy one. He has moaned from day one about the club's transfer policy which is under the control of sporting director Lee Congerton, and had seen the recruitment in the summer of nine players of whom seven have hardly figured in the first team.

He got his way when being allowed to bring in Defoe in January on a massive contract that represented a huge gamble on survival. But it means he now has everything relying on the success of that one signing.

For all Defoe's impact Sunderland are still locked in a run of just five points from eight games, and are only two points above the relegation zone with parts of their crowd starting to turn mutinous. Lose at home to revitalised West Brom on Saturday and the mood will get even worse.