DAVID Moyes admitted Sunderland have found it ‘difficult to deal with Burnley’s style’.

The Black Cats were beaten 4-1 at Turf Moor in the Premier League on New Year’s Eve, before the Clarets had the better of the FA Cup stalemate at the Stadium of Light just over a week ago.

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That saw Moyes move to a back three for the replay and while the Scot felt his side coped better they were still second best as Burnley cruised into the fourth round thanks to goals from Sam Vokes and Andre Gray, his fourth against Sunderland in 18 days.

“We were outplayed here a few weeks ago - we've found it difficult against Burnley,” said Moyes.

“We've found it difficult to deal with Burnley's style more than anything so we changed it a little bit. I thought we just about coped with it first half but unravelled a bit about five minutes before half-time.

“They got a couple of corners and from that we just lost a goal on half-time which was a real blow.”

Moyes switched from a back four to play three central defenders on Tuesday night in a bid to counteract the Clarets threat and also to try and cause Burnley problems of their own, although Nick Pope was only tested in injury time.

"It was something else we looked at, more importantly because we hadn't played that well against Burnley in the other two games,” Moyes said of the tactical switch.

“I wanted to try something else, I wanted to see if we could find another way to cause Burnley some problems.”

Sunderland have also been linked with a move for Norwich City wide man Robbie Brady, with Burnley also interested in the Republic of Ireland international.

Moyes said: "I would always not talk about players at other clubs because I think it's unfair. But, what I will say is that we are trying to see if we can do one or two things.”