LUKE O'NIEN admits Sunderland need some of their young players to quickly develop into leaders but, despite the recent struggle, the captain is encouraged and excited about the potential of the current squad.

The Black Cats have lost a string of experienced pros in the last 12 months, with the likes of Danny Batth, Ross Stewart and Alex Pritchard all moving on and being replaced by young players who the club deem to have big potential.

The talent of Sunderland's young squad isn't in doubt but the lack of experience has been questioned in recent months with the Black Cats tumbling out of the Championship play-off picture after a dismal run of form.

O'Nien admits there's been a change in dynamic in the dressing room over the course of the last year - and Sunderland now need new leaders to step up.

"Each year when players leave there’s always an evolution in the changing room," he said,

"That always brings more responsibility on others and others have got to learn to lead quicker. The only thing with this year is we’ve got leaders who it might take a year or two normally because they’re quite young, might have to come out of the woodwork a little bit quicker because there is less of the senior heads.

"It’s something we need to work on. We need more leaders to come forward, and they are. They’ll come. It’s not an easy thing to do. But when they do there’s going to be a hell of a group which is brewing because the young talent we have, when they make it through into being leaders we’re going to have a hell of a group. But we have to learn really fast."

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O'Nien fronted up to the media after Monday's humiliating hammering at the hands of Blackburn, with the heavy defeat meaning Sunderland have now won just one of their last nine games.

The defender won't accept suggestion that Sunderland's struggle in the second half of the season is purely down to the youthful look of their squad.

He said: "We had the young group last year and we achieved great things. It’s quite easy to point out when we lose a game that we’ve got a young group because when we win it’s a case of ‘great, we’re doing this with a young group.’

"It’s really easy to point fingers. But from the younger players to myself as one of the older players, man for man, we were not good enough at any age. There was far more to that than being a young group."

With six games to go - starting with the visit of Bristol City on Saturday - Sunderland now find themselves 13 points adrift of the top six and 11 ahead of the relegation zone, but O'Nien insists the players aren't wishing away the final weeks of the campaign.

He said: "From a kid I played the game because I loved it, so you don’t really want the season to end, you just want it to keep going. I appreciate everyone has different circumstances and different things going on in their lives so they might think like that.

"But if we were winning everyone would want it to continue. So, I understand and appreciate that after a few difficult results people might feel like it’s been a bit of a long season but it’s a process. We didn’t get promoted from League One straight away, it took three or four years of some highs, some lows and some suffering but just because a season finishes in a certain way or you don’t get the desired end goal, that’s far from a waste."

Sunderland bosses are continuing to speak to candidates ahead of appointing a new head coach in the summer, but O'Nien is adamant that isn't in his or his teammates' thoughts at this stage. The skipper also praised interim head coach Mike Dodds for his work during a difficult spell.

"It (the head coach situation) is something we don’t really think about," said O'Nien.

"I know people might have perceptions of what they think of Mike Dodds – I think he’s exceptional. I really enjoy working under him and I think with time we will get it right but, as a group, we let him down (against Blackburn). There’s no beating around the bush, there’s no hiding it."