Silence the Kop, declares Sunderland manager Gus Poyet

The Black Cats round off a difficult week with a trip to Anfield this afternoon, where they are looking to secure only their third win of the campaign.

The Reds on the other hand are looking for their third consecutive victory, but Brendan Rodgers’ side remain 16 points off top despite finishing runners-up to Manchester City in May.

Having lost star man Luis Suarez to Barcelona in the summer, the Reds have been far from convincing so far and their form has piled the pressure on Rodgers from disgruntled supporters.

Last weekend, Poyet watched his team hold leaders Chelsea to a draw at the Stadium of Light and the head coach believes his men can go one better if they can frustrate the Anfield crowd.

“Expectations because of what they did last year and because it was so spectacular were a little bit out of proportion,” said Poyet, who has Adam Johnson available again, but will be without Sebastian Coates. “That’s one of the most difficult parts of the job for a manager, when the expectations of a manager are too high you need to deal with it.

“People were thinking that it was possible for them to do it again but what they did last year was very special. It wasn’t enough at the end but it was very special.

“Now, everyone has been expecting them to be in the top two and be close to winning the Champions League and it is not that easy. They are getting there. I think it is going to be a slow process and not as quick as people think, especially when they keep changing players.

“I think it has been a strange atmosphere at Anfield this year and we can make it a little stranger.”

This afternoon’s trip to Merseyside rounds off a challenging week for the Wearsiders, who drew with Jose Mourinho’s side before falling to Sergio Aguero and Manchester City on Wednesday night.

Poyet admits his side have found it tough to maintain the required level of performance against the big teams, but he is confident his side will go into the match with Liverpool feeling refreshed.

Poyet said: “It has been a big challenge for us. It was difficult to predict how we would play the games. I have learned a lot, things I can do differently in certain circumstances.

“After the game it can be too easy sometimes, why didn’t I change this and that but for me having been here for a year maybe it was a bit too much for us to have two games like that next to each other when you have to have the same level of consistency against the top two teams in England.

“It was a little bit too much. We need to be stronger to be able to compete with both in that short period of time. In the future I think we can get better at that.

“I think we are feeling a bit more refreshed now. Against City we not only had heavy legs, we looked mentally very tired because of the levels of concentration and everything else that was around the Chelsea game. People were expecting us to do the same against City and then the same against Liverpool, but we couldn’t do it. We couldn’t cope with that. Now we need to make sure we perform, that we defend better in certain places.”