THEY go into tomorrow's game with Blackburn needing to claim at least a point to avoid dropping into the Premier League's bottom three, but as he prepares to take charge of his first game as manager, Martin O'Neill is hoping his Sunderland side will one day play like Barcelona.
Having spent the last four days getting used to his new surroundings, O'Neill has begun to contemplate the long-term vision of how he would like his Black Cats team to play.
The immediate priority is to add to the two home wins that have been recorded since January 1, with Nicklas Bendtner's groin problem providing an unwanted headache that could yet see the Denmark international sidelined tomorrow afternoon.
But looking further ahead, O'Neill would like to see his team playing vibrant, passing football, and has set his sights on one of the greatest club sides of the modern era.
"I always come back to the way Barcelona play, and I think teams look to that," said the new Black Cats boss. "It's a long way in the future, but you'd love to keep that in the back of your mind and think you could eventually have a team that could come out and play like that.
"Over the course of time, people will probably throw that back at me.
"But over the last couple of years, Arsenal have been very easy on the eye and it would be lovely to play a brand of football that would excite the crowd.
"But we need to win some football matches and I suppose at the moment pragmatism has to be the order of the day. We have to win games."
O'Neill's career record in that respect is good, and the 59-year-old avoided defeat in his opening match as manager at the five clubs he previously led.
His most recent spell came at Aston Villa - his first game as Villa boss was a creditable 1-1 draw in the opening Premier League match at Arsenal's Emirates Stadium - and his Villa Park side earned a reputation for exciting, counter-attacking football.
O'Neill gave the likes of Ashley Young, Stewart Downing and Gabriel Agbonlahor a licence to express themselves at Villa.
But having run the rule over the current Sunderland squad in a number of training sessions this week, he has warned supporters not to expect a repeat of the policy he adopted with his previous employers.
"We seemed to have a reputation at Aston Villa for being a counter-attacking side and when you have the likes of (James) Milner, Young, Downing and Agbonlahor playing in the side, that's probably quite true," he said.
"There was a lot of pace in the side so it was almost natural to play that way, particularly away from home. I don't think, from the first look here, that we have that same kind of pace in the team at the moment, so you'd have to adjust accordingly."
O'Neill left Villa Park in August 2010, and while he was linked with a number of managerial positions in the intervening 16 months, he effectively shut himself away from the game for the majority of his spell out of employment.
He watched a handful of Champions League matches as a pundit for ITV, but hadn't really seen a live game until he took his daughter, Alana, to see Arsenal play Fulham at the end of last month.
"She likes her football and I'm hoping she comes up on Sunday," he said. "We sat down in the seats and after three or four minutes, she said, 'Isn't it great to watch a football game where there's no pressure?'
"Little did she realise that a fortnight later, she'd be throwing herself back into it again."
The difference this time, of course, is that her father has taken charge of the club he supported as a boy.
Having already presided over his main boyhood team, Celtic, O'Neill will complete a notable personal double when he emerges from the Stadium of Light tunnel to take his place in the home dug-out.
He has visited the stadium as an opposition manager, but insists any sense of emotion went out of the window as he attempted to inflict defeat on the Black Cats.
This will be different, and he admits he has spent the last few days playing the occasion over in his mind, always with a positive outcome.
"I've played Sunday over in my mind about 15 times, and so far we've won every game," said O'Neill.
"I've thought about lots of different things, but every time we end up winning."
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