Regis Le Bris will respect the FA Cup as Sunderland take on Stoke City on Saturday, and insisted: “it’s important for the dynamic, the players, the fans, the history as well.”

The Black Cats head coach will not change things too much and even though he played an under-strength side against Preston North End in the League Cup earlier in the campaign. Le Bris could hand Salis Abdul Samed a debut and there might be one or two more changes but he reckoned: “It’s a competition that’s very important and we will play that game 100 per cent.”

The Frenchman was asked whether a break from the relentless Championship action was something he welcomed and he said: “I don’t know. I’m not sure. We did well across five games. I was really impressed with the output in the end. We are ready to play again.

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“When you get the rhythm and the pace of that it is difficult to rest and restart afterwards. So for me they [the players] showed they were able to play so many games in a row. It was tough but they did it so now they have shown they can play this many games and now it’s time for two or three players to have game time and feel connected with the team.

“But we won’t make many changes, we want to keep that rhythm. They are ready to play. Probably it’s a good option for injured players or one or two who haven’t played too much and those who played at the end of games to start the game.”

Despite being involved in the transfer window, Le Bris insisted he is mainly focused on winning games and he explained how he manages the two aspects of the job.

“For me the main job is to focus on the team,” he said. “When we have many games, it is focused around the team. Now we are lucky we don’t have to make many changes. A question of two or three specific profiles. The recruitment team is working hard, so before the window we defined, together, what we required for the team and we were clear. Now they can give us the opportunities to watch footage and then we decide, yes we can go further, or no not to. And after that we can have meetings to confirm or discuss about one specific player. This month we will be lighter on games so we will have more time to discuss these profiles.”

Looking ahead is key too and he conceded: “Yes the first idea is to be focused on the Championship. After, it is possible to find a player that can be competitive in the Premier League but the main focus is in the next four months.”

Playing Stoke for a third time in a short period is unusual, not least because the visitors will have a third different head coach for this game.

Le Bris smiled: “We know the players but we don’t know how they will play. We know their main threat and we don’t know how they will play in this game. “That’s football. You can play five, six, seven times against the same team but it won’t be the same game because the scenario is different and many things can happen. It’s 1-1 between us now and we will find a winner by the end of the game.”

City boss Mark Robins is just finding his feet and Le Bris concluded: “Probably when you start with a new team you build strong foundations. You always start with a strong defence. He has many good players and they can play good football. They can threaten the space in behind for example. We’ll see. Let’s play our football and keep our ideas. That’s our focus.”