What was said in Sunderland’s player huddle against Manchester United

Trai Hume says Sunderland need to “stick together and be positive” after suffering just their second Premier League defeat of the season.

Unity was also the key message when Sunderland’s players huddled together on the Old Trafford pitch after conceding the second goal in Saturday’s 2-0 loss.

“We were saying to each other that it’s not good enough, we’ve got to stick together get into half-time and fix things,” revealed Hume.

“We knew we started slowly. And we knew we had to stick together. After that we did it.”

The slow start was damaging for the Black Cats, with United taking complete control after two goals in the opening 31 minutes from Mason Mount and Benjamin Sesko.

Hume said: “First half we started slowly and they started quickly and you’re always going to get punished for that.

“It’s just as simple as that, they punished us with two goals. We came in half-time and we were disappointed.

“We knew we didn’t start well. After that I thought the game was fairly even and if we had started that way it might have been different. But that’s on us. We know that. We need to improve and learn from it.

“We know as a team and as a staff that we weren’t good enough in the first half. In the second half we created a few chances. We didn’t take them but if you don’t start well enough you have to learn from it.”

The game would have changed had Manchester United gone down to 10 men when Bertrand Traore went down on the edge of the box under the challenge of Senne Lammens and Bruno Fernandes, but referee Stuart Attwell instead booked the Sunderland forward for diving.

Hume said: “I don’t see a reason why he’d go down if there wasn’t contact but I haven’t seen it back. He’s going through on goal, I don’t know why he’d go down.”

Despite the defeat, Sunderland still go into the second international break of the season in a strong position with 11 points on the board.

“The start to the season has been good,” said Hume.

“We’re disappointed today that we’ve lost but overall we’ve done well.

“At home we’ve won games and we’ve drawn and even away we’ve got a draw and a win at tough places.

“We lost this one but we had a slow start and they’re 2-0 up at half time. We need to stick together and be positive.”