Noah Sadiki scored his first Sunderland goal as the Black Cats battled back to beat Torreense in midweek

Noah Sadiki issued a staunch defence of Sunderland's starting XI against Torreense and insisted they have a lot of quality to bring over the course of the campaign.

The Black Cats made seven changes for their first European away game on Thursday, and were trailing with an hour played before Régis Le Bris turned to his experienced players on the bench. Jules Ahoka scored from a Nordi Mukiele assist shortly afterwards before Sadiki himself scored his first goal for the Black Cats after smart work from Granit Xhaka and Enzo Le Fée in the build up.

While the manner of Sunderland's performance in the first hour of the game came in for some criticism, the DR Congo international said they will improve with more regular playing time and rhythm.

“It’s much easier for people like Enzo and Granit to come on and perform because those players play every week," Sadiki said.

"They play week in, week out, so they are into the rhythm of the games. For some of the other players, it’s a little bit more difficult for them because it’s the first time they have really played all season. All of a sudden, they need to show whatever they are about. I think we need to give them some time to get into the season. They need to adapt to the rhythm of things. Those players have a lot of quality. Some of them showed really big quality in the game, some maybe will wish they had been able to do a little bit more. But that is not because they do not have quality, it is just because it is very hard to step straight in when you have not been playing for so long."

It has been a challenging start to the season for the Black Cats, who face a punishing schedule before the next international break in November. Sadiki said the group had to stick together and that he feels they are heading in the right direction as a team.

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“We always knew this was going to be a tough part of the schedule," Sadiki said.

"It’s about resting when we can and making sure we stay together as a group. We need to analyse what we did well [against Torreense] and also what we didn’t do well because you can always learn and improve. We are aiming to get better every week.

“We are six from six in the Europa League and that is really good. It has been such a long wait for the club to play in Europe, but we feel like we are aiming in the right direction as a team. We need to look forward to Bournemouth and then to Poland, and then on to Leeds. We just need to get as many points as we can."

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