When the delicate question comes John O'Shea leans forward in his chair and answers unequivocally. "An Irishman is never going to tell an Italian about fashion," says Sunderland's captain. "I won't go down that route."

The centre-half has chatted happily about Paolo Di Canio's forensic coaching and his unexpected human touches but mention of the grey V-necked jumper adorned by a startling purple and white diamond pattern that the manager teamed with a red tie at Chelsea last Sunday swiftly exposes O'Shea's diplomatic side. Not that he and his team-mates will care what Martin O'Neill's successor wears providing they end the season as a Premier League side, perhaps having won at Newcastle United on Sunday along the way.

O'Shea is sitting by a window at the Academy of Light, Sunderland's training ground, and the weak April sun struggling to shine through the glass promises a new beginning after one of the north-east's longest, bleakest winters in recent memory. Despite last Sunday's 2-1 defeat at Stamford Bridge, growing relegation fears and the furore about their new manager's vexed relationship with fascism, the club's mood seems suddenly spring-like

"It's been strange but very positive, too, since he came," O'Shea says. "There's different ideas towards training. We now have intensity early in the week and wind-down just before games. It's a new approach that the players are really enjoying. There were positives at Chelsea and that was after only four or five days with him. Whereas the previous manager was letting things happen naturally, now you know what you have to do. And when a new manager comes in the natural reaction is to want to impress him.

"It's a fresh chance for everyone, including those who weren't in the team. The younger lads especially are enjoying it more. Everyone's buying into it. We're working a lot without the ball, on positioning, shape and pattern. The manager is very clued-in as to what is needed to get this team to survive and we're doing all we can on the training pitch to make sure we do."

Di Canio's stewardship of Swindon Town has been described as management "by hand grenade" but O'Shea simply sees a meticulous, mud-on-boots coach, some of whose methods bear strong similarities to those deployed by Sir Alex Ferguson's staff at Manchester United.

If the former West Ham and Lazio striker's sometimes contradictory political beliefs appear deeply confused, his football brain seems sharply analytical. After finally distancing himself from fascism, Di Canio looks to have spent almost every waking hour immersing himself in the minute details of Sunderland's deficiencies.

"It's not a wacky world here," says O'Shea, who spent the bulk of his career playing for Ferguson. "It's far removed from the impression people on the outside are trying to build up. That's far from the truth of what's going on, believe me. In some ways the coaching now is similar to what we used to do at United. There's an emphasis on team shape and pattern, we're doing quite a bit more on that than in the past and it's something United did before big games."

A key difference from life under Ferguson is that the Italian shuns delegation and, at 44, remains young and fit enough to demonstrate precisely how movements should be executed. "After the warm-up in training the manager joins in to show us a 'technical moment'," O'Shea says. "He'll show us exactly where and how he wants players to receive the ball and how he wants their body movement to be when they accept it and turn away."

Rather than regarding this as Di Canio showing off his superior skills in the manner that Glenn Hoddle once infamously put David Beckham in his place during France 98, Sunderland's players are relishing such practical input. "Everyone remembers the quality of the goals he scored but he wants to focus making his name as a manager now," stresses O'Shea.

O'Shea "can't really remember" marking Di Canio in a game, although he thinks he did so once. "Probably didn't get near him," jokes a 31-year-old who will bear prime responsibility for keeping Papiss Cissé and, possibly, Shola Ameobi – who has a habit of scoring against Sunderland – quiet on Sunday. Should things go wrong the visitors cannot complain about muddled instruction.

"The manager's quite hands-on in terms of showing players exactly where he wants them to be at certain times, the movement he wants them to make and the options we could take," O'Shea says.

With Sunderland without a win in nine games and only goal difference keeping them out of the bottom three, the derby against a Newcastle side who are not yet quite safe either is being hyped as do or die. "The game's live on Sky and, as they do, they ramp the life out of it," says O'Shea.

Strip away the near hysterical media top-spin though and the prospect of relegation still probably feels like Armageddon to Ellis Short, Sunderland's owner.

"The league table tells you what a serious position we're in," O'Shea says. "We have to take as much information as we can in to try to implement it in the huge games coming up. It's vital for the club to stay in the top division – and for us to maintain our careers at this level."

When a last-minute goal from Cissé secured Newcastle victory against Fulham last Sunday Alan Pardew leapt into the crowd to celebrate with fans, Newcastle's manager emerging with shirt untucked and hair dishevelled. With Di Canio hardly a shrinking violet either, the stage seems set for a dramatic technical area sub-plot.

"The media will be doing all they can to box office Di Canio v Pardew," O'Shea says. "And I'm sure our manager will take care of his end but the main thing is our preparation, the detail that we're soaking into our heads. The tactical things the manager wants us to use at certain points.

"You want intensity and passion but you also need the composure to recognise situations where you can take advantage. We've got a few injuries but we can't start using that as an excuse because there are players in this squad good enough to go out and win the match."

O'Neill recently claimed the squad lacked "real, true ability" while, last autumn, Steven Taylor, the Newcastle centre-half, declared that "not one" Sunderland player would get into Pardew's first XI. Di Canio though is on a mission to prove that stellar coaching really can make swans of apparently ugly ducklings. So far the indications are that it will be conducted against a backdrop of tentative democracy rather than full-on dictatorship. Already Di Canio has sought individual opinions during a series of private chats with his players and O'Shea has been singled out for several such tête-à-têtes with the manager.

"First and foremost he wants to keep Sunderland as a Premier League team and believes he can," says the captain. "He might have had other opportunities with other teams and gone elsewhere but he came here. We have to take that as a huge positive."

There has been no blizzard of rules and regulations, with the main off-field changes regarding lunches, two of which each week must be eaten communally. "There's always great Italian food on the menu," O'Shea says. "The more of it the better. Eating together is not the hardest thing in the world. Two days a week he wants all the lads having a bit of craic and food together. It doesn't make people go out and score hat-tricks but it's good for team spirit, morale and camaraderie. The lads have no problem with it whatsoever."

Giovanni Trapattoni, the Republic of Ireland's Italian manager, quickly banned O'Shea and co from eating certain foods including mushrooms but, apart from restricting Sunderland's alcohol consumption, Di Canio has not proved as stringent as imagined. Even butter, banned at Swindon, is permitted.

"Mushrooms are still OK and there's been no problem with butter," says O'Shea. "The manager just wants to do his best to ensure Sunderland survive. If that means having or not having a meal at a certain time the boys are going to stick to it. No problem."