John O'Shea: 'We didn't test Liverpool enough'

John O'Shea has admitted that Sunderland did not put Liverpool under enough pressure during their defeat at the Stadium of Light earlier today.

Lazar Markovic scored the only goal of the match inside the first 10 minutes to give Brendan Rodgers's side the victory.

The Black Cats captain told the club's website: "Liverpool have some very good players but ultimately you want to make sure they're on the back foot when you're at home, and we didn't do that enough in the first half.

"We recognised that they were going to press us but we needed to play better balls and stretch their defence, because they were playing a back three and we didn't really make them defend enough especially in the opening period.

"I think we would have got a bit more joy if we had done and we need to recognise those situations in games, because it is no good the manager just telling us and it us up to the players on the pitch to realise those things."

The result has left Sunderland 15th in the Premier League table, just a point clear of the relegation zone.