Sunderland manager Sam Allardyce on Thursday (4th February) looked ahead to Saturday's (6 February) match away to Liverpool in the English Premier League.

SOUNDBITE: (English) Sam Allardyce, Sunderland manager:

(On building on 1-0 home loss to Manchester City on Tuesday.)

"So in our position, not gaining at least a point is a massive blow to us in where we are and where we're positioned in the league. So we need to make up for that by continuing that level of performance, and that will hopefully - and I don't have any real doubt about that - give us more positive results going forward.."

SOUNDBITE: (English) Sam Allardyce, Sunderland manager:

(On suggestion Liverpool could be tired due to recent schedule.)

"Fatigue only enters a team in the last 15-20 minutes and if they've played more games than you, which obviously Liverpool have and Manchester City, what we have to do is do what we did on Tuesday night - make sure in and around the game at that stage and try and take more advantage of it then."

SOUNDBITE: (English) Sam Allardyce, Sunderland manager:

(On Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp and high-intensity football.)

"He's very clever in that area, particularly when he was in Germany - a part of one of the reasons why his team (Borussia Dortmund) accomplished so much was the energy that they had, as well as their technical capabilities... so he's well aware of that. But he's finding his feet. I'm sure he'll have his own ideas on how he wants to shape the team in the summer, and I think probably he's trying to do the best he possibly can to get as many results as he can to get through this season. He's obviously a great character, which we all love to see at our level of football."