The 26-year-old, who scored 18 goals in the Premier League last season, has scored seven goals in nine appearances this term and is set to be hot property again when the transfer window reopens in January.
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Former England striker Defoe, and his team mates, have been warned there will be no hiding place for poor performances under new boss Allardyce.
Allardyce said: “There is always a place for a goalscorer but you can not just be a goalscorer today so that’s something we need to address with Jermain”. That really lies with performance analysis, doesn’t it?
‘You analyse everyone’s performance on Prozone and you look at the contribution they make on a game-to-game basis.
‘So when players don’t play it is generally because they drop themselves, not because you have dropped them’.
‘You can also judge with your eyes using your experience and then come to a decision on who is best equipped at that moment in time of playing in your team. Is it stopping you playing as well as you have been playing because you are not quite playing there?’
Sunderland travels to the Hawthorns on Sunday (AEST), searching for a maiden league win of the season with its new man at the helm for the first time.
Asked what scope he might have to add to his resources – Sunderland have been linked with out-of-contract trio Kevin Nolan, Carlton Cole and Ron Vlaar in recent days – Allardyce admitted the process of identifying what is required and what might be available will start nearly immediately.
West Ham fans were split on Allardyce’s appointment in 2011 and despite leading the club back to the Premier League during his first season in charge, the former Bolton chief was consistently criticised because of his team’s perceived long-ball style.
“People forget that when they got relegated, he got them promoted in the first year and they kicked on from there”.
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He said that, “without being too critical of anyone”, trying not to point fingers at those above or previous manager Dick Advocaat, who walked away from the job last Sunday, “the problem has to be recruitment”.
