GUS POYET admits the current Sunderland side is nothing like the one he would like to be fielding in a few seasons time, but insists he will not be making signings for the sake of it during next month’s transfer window.

The Black Cats head into today’s home game with West Ham in something of a rut, having gone five matches without a victory and scored just two goals in their last seven-and-a-half hours of action.

A repeat of October’s embarrassing capitulation at Southampton has been avoided, but a spate of goalless draws hardly represents the kind of vibrant, exciting football Poyet promised to deliver when he was appointed last October.

The Uruguayan has spent 14 months in his post, but admits he is still struggling to stamp his impression on the Sunderland squad. Indeed, with his summer transfer business having been limited by financial constraints and a failure to land some of his main targets, he is still having to adapt his preferred style to suit the players he inherited.

“We’re not playing even 50 per cent of the way I want to play,” said Poyet. “One of the words I tried to use a lot last year was that I don’t think we have an identity yet. Getting that is the future, that’s my challenge.

“That’s in the next year. Hopefully, in two years time, we’ll have something unique, something where people look at Sunderland in a different way because I’ll have been here two or three years. That’s not right now, and we’re still a long way away from that because of the personnel.

“I’m adapting more to the team than the team’s adapting to the manager, for sure. We started from the back, making sure about the basics, and then you slowly have to progress from that.

“The more players we bring in to certain positions, the better and easier it will be for me. But at the moment, we’re not playing even 50 per cent of the way I want.”

Poyet’s next chance to remodel his squad comes when the transfer window reopens at the start of next month. Sunderland have been monitoring Celtic defender Virgil van Dijk and Spanish centre-half Raul Albentosa, while Liverpool’s Fabio Borini continues to be heavily linked with a potential return to the Stadium of Light for the second half of the season.

Poyet would like to make changes in January, but insists he will not be falling into the same trap as his predecessor, Paulo Di Canio, and making a host of signings in order to swell the size of his squad.

One big-money purchase would be preferable to five cut-price additions, although it remains to be seen whether Sunderland can lure a blue-chip signing to Wearside given their position in the bottom half of the table.

“Before you ask, it’s quality or nothing in January, not quantity,” he said. “Quantity in this club is finished. We’re not signing quantity any more.

“I don’t want any more, ‘Maybe if in three months time (we might need to start playing a certain signing)’. No. There were too many of those in the last three years, and in the end the team suffers.

“You can’t progress with too many changes. We’re looking for quality, and that’s a question of money of course. How much? That’s something we’re working on.”

In the more immediate term, Poyet has been preparing his players for a meeting with a West Ham side that could feature his son, Diego.

Poyet Jnr has not played for the Hammers since September, but having returned from a successful loan spell at Huddersfield, Sam Allardyce has added the 19-year-old midfielder to his squad for today’s game.

“He’s in the squad, so he has a chance (of starting),” said Allardyce. “He’s had some first-team football up in Huddersfield and now he’s back here. We’re happy he’s back.”

Poyet has never come up against his son before, but insists there will be no question of split loyalties if he is included on Allardyce’s team sheet this afternoon.

He has avoided making direct contact this week, but is looking forward to revelling in the family bragging rights later this evening.

“I’m trying to stay away from him so there’s no misunderstanding or any kind of doubts,” he said. “It’s not nice, but it’s only for a few days, it’s not like I’m not going to talk to him anymore.

“I think it’s better not to call him or for him to call me. People might think we’ve been on the phone, but I’m going to try to avoid him as much as I can until after 5pm, and then after that it’s okay.

“This is the first time we’ll have come up against each other, and I hope he doesn’t play because it will be a strange feeling. On the other side, I’d like him to play Premier League football though.

“Normally, I’ll look out for the result after our game is finished because I want him to do well, but this time I don’t care how he does. We say in Spanish there are no friends on the pitch – and it’s no family ties this time as well.”