Sunderland boss Gus Poyet admits the club's U21 squad members aren't quite up to the mark.
Poyet has had the club's young players train with his first team squad this season.
"In my first weeks (as Sunderland coach) I had 26 players training every day and I needed to change it quickly, so it was just a matter of mentality," he said. "Now we have plenty of time to work with them, so there are no excuses, but we have fewer players. We are only working with 17, so it's a different situation.
"A few of the under-21s have been training with us. They are the players who have been performing better than the rest in the under-21s, but they are not in the positions we need in the first team."
