Advertisement

Regis le Bris sends Roberts and Mundle message as Sunderland set Championship challenge

Sunderland manager Regis Le Bris
-Credit: (Image: PA)


Regis Le Bris leads his Sunderland team into battle against Luton Town on Wednesday night, insisting: "We have to impose our own style on the game.”

The Black Cats head coach is more than aware of the threat the Hatters pose at Kenilworth Road and he believes his team will be ready.

He confirmed Sunderland will still be without injured pair Eliezer Mayenda and Dan Ballard for the clash, and he hopes wingers Patrick Roberts and Romaine Mundle are able to learn from their experiences of Sunday when they found themselves with the ball more than usual in trying to unlock the door.

READ MORE:Monty Don's 'absolutely essential' gardening job to do now to avoid lasting winter damage

READ MORE:Bianca Gascoigne speaks about alleged sexual assault by former Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed

“It’s not very easy to break that final third and we struggled,” said Le Bris of the Hull game. “It’s not easy to break a low block like that.

“We tried many options. It was the one-v-one situation where we were not very efficient but this final part of the build-up phase is still the most difficult and I think we need time just to adjust our patterns to make it more predictable for us. So it’s easier to understand when Patrick or Romaine will cross for example. And to understand when it is important to be in the box and arrive at the right time.

“These patterns are not set at the moment but we will work on it. It’s another part of the game and maybe that game [Hull] was specific because they had the ball a lot of the time, more than expected probably.

“With Patrick it was unusual to have the ball so often in this one-v-one situation and he struggled a bit but it’s a new experience and we will improve this. It could be an option to change them over [Roberts and Mundle] because another one-v-one could cause them [defenders] different problems.

“And they can cross with the wrong foot because they did it. We spoke with the players and I said, ‘if you want to come inside with your strong foot you need to create danger with your opposite foot because the defender will have these two options to defend.’ If it’s only their main foot it’s easier to defend. I think we need to finish our actions and crosses are very important for that.”

On Luton he said: “Their style is well known. They are very efficient so I don’t think they will change their style of play. The strengths are very interesting. When they play like that it is very difficult to stop them. It will happen in the game so we will have to be able to face those kinds of situations.

“We have to impose our style of play as well. If we can keep the ball, if we can dominate the pitch and have massive control on the ball, for them they will have less options, less weapons and less opportunities to hurt us. This is the main objective of this game. Do we want to be proactive on the pitch, or just react and expect they are weak? Instead of imposing our style. So that is my main concern for this game.”

Le Bris is relishing the Championship and added; “I’m looking forward to this new experience because I like discovering new stadiums, new styles of play, new teams and how we can solve the problems to win. To be competitive in this league the variety of styles is huge, it’s interesting to change and evolve, managing some problems but imposing our way of playing is very important as well.

“In Hull we controlled the game in the first part and in the second part they regained possession but we were able to defend and regain possession later so it’s very good for the team.”

Asked how his team has grown he added: “It’s difficult to say in just three months. The story started before me. There were some bad experiences last season when they lost many games but to grow it’s important to live these experiences. You can’t watch the learnings during [the bad spell] because you are still losing but the experiences are useful.”

He added: “During the season when we lost we knew exactly why we lost and were always stable in other parts of our game. It wasn’t a disaster when everything went wrong.

“In that case it’s easier to understand the small part of the game that we’re not strong enough. To work on it and solve it.

“Against Luton the first contact will be important, the second contact, second ball, the way we can recycle the ball and how we can control the game. “Sometimes only one decision can change the dynamic of the game. Football is like that, it can be unpredictable. What we can control we want to work on. We have many elements to develop and it’s our main focus.”