Three Sunderland Issues Regis Le Bris Must Solve After Coventry Defeat

Sunderland remain rooted to the bottom of the Premier League table after nine games following their abject defeat at Coventry City on Saturday, leaving Regis Le Bris with several issues to resolve. 

Coventry battered Sunderland 3-1 in a performance that was simply unacceptable from Le Bris’ side, placing even further pressure on the Black Cats boss with some sections of the red-and-white supporter base losing faith in the Frenchman. 

However, news emerged in the wake of the hammering at the CBS Arena that Le Bris’ Sunderland job is “safe” for now and that he retains the full support of the Stadium of Light hierarchy, who will give the Black Cats boss time to turn things around in the coming weeks of the campaign. 

If Le Bris is to do so and resurrect Sunderland’s start to the Premier League season, there are three glaring tactical issues that the head coach must solve. And soon. 

First of all, the defensive rigidity that built the foundation for Sunderland’s seventh-placed success last season has totally gone missing this term, seeing the Black Cats look uncharacteristically dishevelled, disorganised and penetrable at the back. 

Although the onus is on Le Bris to get the Black Cats back to their stern best in defence, there is also pressure on the Sunderland defenders to stop making so many individual errors leading to conceding goals, with their tally now reaching seven after Trai Hume and Luke O’Nien were at fault at Coventry. 

For Le Bris, he needs to stop chopping and changing his backline around and get some consistency with defensive selection so that the connections and confidence can return to hopefully see Sunderland plug their leaky defence. 

Sunderland have been exposed this season in every third of the field, but the midfield battle has been a particular cause of concern for the Black Cats. 

Granit Xhaka has looked a shell of his former self this season, with Noah Sadiki and Enzo Le Fee also far less effective in comparison to last season. 

With Le Bris utilising Xhaka and Sadiki as a double pivot to allow creator-in-chief Le Fee to advance, this has seen Sunderland overrun in midfield far too often, which led to newly-promoted Coventry netting three on Saturday without sufficient pressure. 

Given young summer signing Jules Ahoka’s exciting start at Sunderland in both the Europa League and Carabao Cup competitions, and the need for an infusion of athleticism in the Black Cats’ engine room, there is an argument to be made for the young Congolese midfielder to be tested in Le Bris’ Premier League starting XI this month. 

The final element of Sunderkand’s struggle comes in the final third, and perhaps is the greatest point of frustration from the red-and-white faithful towards Le Bris and his reluctance to employ two natural wingers in top flight games. 

Le Bris’ persistent use of Hume and or Thomas Meunier at right midfield this season is destroying the Black Cats’ attacking output and flair down that channel, but when he changed things in the Carabao Cup, fortunes favoured the Frenchman. 

In Sunderland’s 3-2 win over Brentford last week in the Carabao Cup fourth-round tie, Le Bris started Jocelin Ta Bi on the right wing, who enjoyed a stunning display with a trio of assists, with Malick Fofana on the left, seeing Chemsdine Talbi operate in the number ten role behind Timur Tutierov. 

Against an always testing Bees side, Sunderland put three past Keith Andrews’ visitors within the first 40 minutes, with the pace and intensity in attack the best that the Black Cats have exhibited all season. 

This victory proved to Le Bris that two wingers is the way forward, and he must utilise this selection process in every Sunderland game heading forward to get the Black Cats’ attack back on track, with Le Bris having several options in the aforementioned trio who impressed against Brentford and Nilson Angulo. 

Clearly, there are fundamental issues in every third of Sunderland’s play, and now the onus is on Le Bris to learn the error of his ways from the start of this season and see his out-of-form side return to winning ways rapidly, with home clashes against Dinamo Zagreb and Chelsea on the agenda this week. 

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