Sunderland failed to follow instructions and looked frightened early on in their Premier League loss to Chelsea, according to Sam Allardyce.
The 61-year-old's side were two goals behind inside 13 minutes at Stamford Bridge and eventually fell to a 3-1 defeat.
Allardyce made a first-half substitution and changed to a four-man defence for the second successive game when he replaced Sebastian Coates, who was at fault for Chelsea's opening two strikes, with Adam Johnson.
And he was generally unimpressed with thr display.
"We looked frightened of going out to play. We picked a team to put them under pressure, but we didn't really do that," Allardyce told BBC Sport.
"When we gave them the first goal early it lifted the whole stadium. Right from the start we made life very difficult for ourselves.
"I was happy to get in at half-time just 2-0 down. The worrying thing for me is that again the personnel haven't carried out instructions and again I have had to change things.
"It's not what you want to do, but you have to react and for a time we were a little better, but then we did the most stupid thing of all which was to give them a penalty.
"My worry is that we are not picking up points with the performances and that is what we have to turn around. If we can do some business in the January window it will help us.
"Every game that goes by without a point puts you deeper and deeper into the pressure pot."
