REGIS LE BRIS admits Sunderland’s 2-1 defeat at Leeds United last night highlighted the need for increased squad depth in the closing stages of the season.

Leeds’ substitutes transformed the game at Elland Road, with two of the home side’s replacements combining for their equaliser as Joe Rothwell swung over a free-kick that was glanced home by Pascal Struijk.

Struijk then claimed a 95th-minute winner as he scored with another close-range header, with Daniel Farke’s second-half interventions proving decisive.

Le Bris made changes of his own, bringing on Salis Abdul Samed, Eliezer Mayenda and Ian Poveda, but he was unable to transform the course of the game in the way that Farke was able to.

Things might have been different had he been able to bring on Romaine Mundle, but while the winger was on the bench, Le Bris did not feel he was ready to come into such a pressurised and high-tempo environment.

Mundle should be available for the weekend home game with Hull City, with Tommy Watson also closing in on a return to action, and Le Bris is looking forward to having a much more potent substitutes’ bench in the next few weeks.

“It's still the same focus for us,” said the Sunderland boss. “A defeat here won't change our way of thinking. We are still in a good place, and I think this team is improving game after game, even after a tough game like this one.

“The next layer for us is just winning at home in our next game. After that, we will see.

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“I think it shows that we need a little bit more depth in our squad. I think this will be the case in the next few weeks because we will have two, three, four players who were injured.

“When they are fit again, they are going to be very useful for the team. I think this will make a difference. Romaine is one example, because he has not played for a long time.”

Sunderland were ahead for the best part of an hour last night, but Leeds were ratcheting up the pressure long before Struijk equalised with 12 minutes remaining.

The home side continued to press when the scores were level, and unlike in the first half, when they were able to offer a considerable threat on the counter-attack, Sunderland’s players were unable to hold on to the ball as Leeds’ dominance eventually told late on.

“It was a tough second half, but we need to admit that Leeds were very good,” said Le Bris. “Sometimes, when you play against such a strong team, sometimes you can't find the solution.

“We can always find the elements in the game that we can improve. For example, our restarts in the second half from goal kicks. We couldn't keep the ball, so we just kept kicking away the ball and then they come back quickly to our box.

“This is an example of the details we can look at and improve. You can learn from these experiences - I think Leeds have more experience than us and I think you could feel this in the second half and at the end of the game.

“We have to learn from this bad feeling and after we have analysed the game deeply, we can find the elements to improve.”