Sunderland's lack of quality has been evident for several seasons now. Getting thrashed by an (admittedly decent) Leicester side was a sickening enough start to the season, but losing at home to newly-promoted Norwich has really set off alarm bells with regard to the team's actual footballing ability. You could almost see Jeremain Lens looking around thinking "what the hell am I doing here?" as another wild shank from Sebastian Coates drifted horribly into touch. Defensive errors are the most glaring issue with Sunderland's performance so far, but all areas of the team could do with serious improvement. The midfield trio of Larsson, Cattermole and Rodwell are far too defensive-minded, and the introduction of Yann M'Vila has added precisely zero attacking impetus - as highly-rated a player as he may be. Up front, the situation is similarly dire. Steven Fletcher, Jermain Defoe and Danny Graham, as occasionally acceptable as they may be, can't be relied upon to lead the line for a whole season. There's no player on the team with the quality needed to shoulder the bulk of the goalscoring responsibility. Simply put, Sunderland don't have enough good players, and even if members of the current squad raise their individual performance levels, they still don't mesh together well at all.
