As a keen student of interior design, Fabio Borini knows all about minimalism and fully appreciates the benefits of clean lines, pared-down spaces and clever use of light. When it comes to the insides of houses, this most stylish Italian has long understood that, sometimes, less really is more but now he seems to be applying the same concept to an increasingly unshowy, attacking game big on functionality and efficiency.

Deployed wide on either flank in Sunderland’s 4-1-4-1 formation, Borini has been transformed from a limelight-craving centre-forward into a no-frills tracker-back whose dedication to the cause helps explain why Sam Allardyce’s side are currently favourites to win their private relegation battle with Newcastle and Norwich.

In the language of Farrow & Ball paint charts he has gone from Rectory Red to Elephant’s Breath but will at times put up with being barely noticed by some fans if it means Sunderland survive.

“I call my role a blind job because people don’t notice the work you’re doing,” says Borini. “I feel a bit like Thomas Müller at Bayern Munich – they pick him because he does a lot of blind jobs, which makes things easier for everyone else.”

The need to create a platform from which Jermain Defoe, Allardyce’s lone striker, can menace opponents while also protecting Sunderland’s full-backs – arguably the team’s weakest defensive link – explains why Borini has scored only four times in 24 appearances since his £10m move from Liverpool last summer. “My natural position is to play up front, especially as one of two strikers,” says the 25-year-old as he prepares for Saturday’s trip to Stoke. “Playing wide is hard. Sometimes it’s more about going backwards than forwards. It’s about defending and tracking back rather than enjoying the ball in the opposition half, and it’s why I’m not scoring as many goals as I want.

“You could see against Arsenal last week [when Sunderland drew 0-0 at the Stadium of Light] that I probably touched the ball more in my own box than in the opposition half so it does get a little bit frustrating. It’s not so enjoyable.”

Not that a player who proved prolific in central striking roles at both Swansea and Roma is complaining. “My job has to be done,” he says. “The manager thinks I’m the right man for it so I’ll do it. You have to put yourself to one side a little bit to help the team and that’s what I’ve done all season – but it will all be worth it if we stay up. Hopefully next season we won’t be fighting relegation and I can play a more attacking role, have a bit more freedom in the attacking third.”

Outside the window at the Academy of Light, Sunderland’s weekday headquarters, it is sleeting and the temperature has plunged to Siberian levels. Undeterred, Borini believes this hostile weather can only help his team-mates get in the mood for visiting the unloved Britannia Stadium and a Mark Hughes side hurt by a series of unexpectedly heavy defeats.

“Stoke away is always difficult for everybody,” he says. “Nobody ever wants to play at Stoke but we have to go there and try to win. We need the points but Stoke are going to be angry, they’re going to want to show what they can really do.”

Borini knows the feeling. His enduring quest to prove himself has carried him from the youth system at Bologna – where he also studied design at college – to Chelsea, where he admired Carlo Ancelotti’s capacity for “keeping absolutely everybody happy” but could not quite break into the first team. A loan stint at Swansea was followed by switches to Parma and then Roma before an £11m transfer to Liverpool.

It reunited him with Brendan Rodgers, the coach who had mentored him as a youngster at Stamford Bridge and then the Liberty Stadium – where Borini’s goals clinched promotion to the Premier League – but the pair’s once close bond did not take long to unravel. “We don’t speak any more,” he confirms. “It’s sad. It ended badly between me and him, it’s not what I wanted.”

Things really started to go wrong when a forward who had shone during a season-long loan at Sunderland during the 2013-14 season refused a £14m move to Wearside and instead resolved to force himself into the Anfield first-team picture. Seeing things somewhat differently, Liverpool’s former manager became so annoyed at his intransigence that Borini was ordered to train alone last season.

“I’m a proud person,” says the one-cap Italy international who started only eight of his 25 games on Merseyside. “But after a while I understood there was no future there and knew I just needed to accept it. Training alone was the hardest thing but they were pushing me away, forcing me to make the decision to go.

“Maybe I didn’t get as many opportunities as I deserved but the world doesn’t end when you leave Liverpool and now I’m very happy here. I’ve had too many clubs, too many changes, so I want to stay at Sunderland, to have some stability.”

Even so, part of him was transported back to Merseyside this week. “To fight for 27 years to make something wrong right is amazing,” he says, reflecting on the inquest into the Hillsborough disaster and the jury’s verdict that 96 Liverpool fans had been unlawfully killed. “It’s a great achievement for all the families and the whole city. It’s an amazing place.”

He has relished discovering the north-east to be “a bit similar” and particularly appreciates Allardyce’s honesty. “He’s a very straight guy,” Borini says. “You know what he’s thinking and, even if you don’t, he’s going to tell you. He shouts a lot, sometimes for no reason, and he doesn’t always speak proper English but he’s a manager you listen to.”

Like Allardyce, Borini is deeply into both psychology and sports science. A player who claims he can learn more about a person from their choice of decor and internal colour schemes than during an hour’s conversation used to employ a personal mental coach.

He credits Roberto Civitarese, who helped him for six years, with smoothing the transition from northern Italy to Chelsea. “As a young guy you don’t know how things work and there’s a lot of distractions,” he says. “He was very expensive but he helped me focus on the right areas and understand what I needed to do.”

When Allardyce succeeded Dick Advocaat, the manager hired a psychologist to work with Sunderland’s squad. “My talks with him have had a positive outcome,” says Borini. “Psychology can make a big, big difference. If your body’s right 80% of football’s in the mind. Look at Leicester – something’s definitely changed in their minds this season.”

Borini’s dedication is such that he has installed a gym at the home he shares with his wife, the model Erin O’Neill. “Physically, I need to do a little bit more work than some players,” he says. “I need top-ups.”

Mentally, few team-mates can be as agile as a multilingual Italian who regularly reads books in English – he’s currently reading the diary of Anne Frank –and is sufficiently artistic to have designed pieces of furniture for the interior of a new holiday home in Ibiza where he can practise his already flawless Spanish.

For the moment, though, Borini is applying himself to solving a single, critical problem. “Sunderland’s a big club with great fans and one of the biggest stadiums in England,” he says. “Most Premier League clubs are smaller than us and we won’t always be fighting relegation but, before we can change everything, we have to stay up. We must make sure we don’t get relegated.”