DICK ADVOCAAT is considering a radical change in formation in an attempt to get Sunderland’s survival push back on track with a win in this weekend’s game at Stoke.

With the Black Cats’ frailties having been repeatedly exposed during the 4-1 home defeat to Crystal Palace, Advocaat has spent the last fortnight trialling a number of different systems in an attempt to shore up his side’s defence ahead of the trip to the Britannia Stadium.

With no game last weekend because of Arsenal’s involvement in the FA Cup semi-finals, the Dutchman has had the best part of two weeks in which to work with his players.

Last Friday’s behind-closed-doors practice game with Scottish side Hamilton provided another opportunity to try out a number of tactical tweaks, and Advocaat is understood to be considering a significant shift in approach for Saturday’s trip to the Potteries.

The introduction of a three-man backline is one option that has been discussed, and while Wes Brown will not be available for this weekend, Billy Jones could move across to centre-half or Sebastien Coates could step into the backline. Interestingly, untried 19-year-old defender Tom Beadling has also been training with the senior group.

Another option under consideration is the pairing of Lee Cattermole and Liam Bridcutt together in an attempt to shore up the heart of midfield. However, Advocaat does not want to restrict his side’s attacking threat by leaving too many forward players on the bench.

“One of the big strengths of the manager is that he’s been at lots of different clubs playing lots of different systems,” said Patrick van Aanholt, who could find himself playing at wing-back if Advocaat opts to restructure his defence.

“I think it’s good for us to try a new system and see what happens, but it’s up to the manager if he wants to do it. If he does it and we perform on the pitch, fine.

“He’s changed some stuff around and he’s an experienced man, so he knows what he’s doing and everyone’s listened to him.

“Ideally, you want to play games, and you don’t want to train every day without the matches. But, for us, it’s probably been good to be able to have a couple of weeks off and train as a team and try to figure out a new shape and some new things.”

Clearly, Sunderland will have to improve their defending if they are to take something from Saturday’s game, but having bemoaned his side’s lack of attacking threat in the defeat to Palace, Advocaat has also been attempting to sharpen up his squad’s finishing.

Connor Wickham claimed a last-minute consolation goal against the Eagles, but that was only Sunderland’s third goal in their last eight games, a tally that helps explain why they find themselves within a point of the bottom three with just six more games to play.

Despite fielding Wickham, Jermain Defoe and Steven Fletcher in each of his games in charge, Advocaat has been unable to engineer an improvement in his side’s goalscoring. As a result, he is stressing the need to be more clinical to each and every member of his squad.

“The little chances we get, we’ve got to take them,” said van Aanholt. “We’ve been doing a lot of shooting in training and working on shape and that.

“We played a game on Friday, a friendly game, and I think that was good for us to try new things. We’ve also been able to rest, spend time with our families and recharge the batteries again, and I think that’s worked because we’ve been training fairly sharply this week.”

Meanwhile, bookmakers were yesterday reporting heavy support for former Sunderland boss Gus Poyet to be the next manager at West Ham.

The Hammers are widely expected to part company with Sam Allardyce at the end of the season, and Poyet has surprisingly emerged as a contender to replace him.

David Moyes and Slaven Bilic have long been considered the favourites for a potential vacancy at Upton Park, but Poyet’s odds have been trimmed to around 3-1 after a flurry of best in the last 24 hours.