Sunderland manager Sam Allardyce has backed Jan Kirchhoff to recover from his horrible debut.

German defender Kirchhoff, who joined from Bayern Munich earlier this month, endured a debut to forget during the Black Cats' 4-1 defeat against Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane last weekend as he was at fault for two of the goals despite entering the game as a substitute only after the hour mark.

As a result, Kirchhoff has been widely mocked in social media but Allardyce has backed the defender to bounce back in a similar fashion in which the likes of Fernando Hierro and Jay-Jay Okocha did when he was manager at Bolton Wanderers.

Allardyce said: "When you're watching it from abroad they think, 'Ah, I'll be alright there' – and they all say that – right from Fernando Hierro to Jay-Jay Okocha.

"I took Jay-Jay off at half-time in the first game of the season at QPR and he almost begged me to take him off because he couldn't cope.

"In the end he turned out to be an outstanding player."