Why Regis Le Bris' Sunderland Tactics Are Not Working After Coventry Shocker

Sunderland remain rooted to the bottom of the Premier League table following the harrowing defeat at Coventry City on Saturday afternoon, and the pressure is severely mounting on Regis Le Bris as a result.

Coventry beat Sunderland 3-1 with ease at the weekend thanks to goals from Tatsuhiro Sakamoto, Taiwo Awoniyi and Jack Rudoni, with Enzo Le Fee's penalty bringing one back but failing to inspire a comeback in a horrifying Halloween display from the Black Cats.

At Coventry, and as has been the case far too often at the start of the Premier League campaign, Sunderland have made far too many individual errors in defence this season, leading to the Black Cats conceding seven goals as a result, the highest in the league.

Le Bris has demanded that Sunderland stop causing their own downfall with these individual errors, which cost his side two goals at the CBS Arena, but the onus is on the Black Cats boss to adapt his currently failing tactics, in order to resurrect his side's season and save his job.

It is important to preface the analysis of this season's Sunderland tactics with how much better the Black Cats looked last term under Le Bris in their first season back in the Premier League after an eight-year absence, which led the Frenchman's side to remarkably finish seventh and qualify for the Europa League.

Last season, Sunderland sat 16th in the Premier League in terms of average possession at 44.9 percent and 17th in the league in terms of goals scored at 42 with an average of 1.1 goals scored per match, highlighting that Le Bris' side clearly were not prolific in front of goal last season.

However, it was the team's resolute defensive structure that built the foundation to finish seventh as the Black Cats conceded just 48 goals last season, sitting fourth in the table for lowest goals conceded per match at 1.3, bettered only by Brighton, Manchester City, and champions Arsenal.

At the start of this season, in both defence and attack, the numbers tell a far more worrying story for Le Bris' Sunderland side as he looks to evolve them in their second season in the top flight.

So far this Premier League campaign, Sunderland sit 19th in the league for goals scored per match at 0.8 and 18th for goals conceded per match at 1.9, scoring seven times so far this season in their first nine outings whilst shipping a shockingly worse 17.

Worryingly, Sunderland's average possession has increased by almost five percent to 49.7, which proves that Le Bris' tactics are simply not working this season as he looks to evolve the Black Cats from a low-scoring, defensively rigid team into a more progressive side in possession.

Numbers aside, Le Bris' push from last season's lower defensive block and team press into this year's man-to-man pressing structure simply is not working in the Premier League, and once again to Sunderland's downfall, this time at Coventry.

For the Sky Blues' third, Frank Lampard's side progressed the ball brilliantly from goalkeeper Carl Rushworth to see Rudoni net third and put the final nail in Sunderland's coffin in a high-quality team goal.

However, from a Sunderland perspective, it was a shocking goal to concede, with no Coventry player receiving the ball with pressure on their back, which enabled them to play out with far too much ease and eventually kill the game.

Rudoni's deflected strike encapsulated both how far the Black Cats' standards have fallen and how glaringly obvious it is that Le Bris' attempt to evolve Sunderland from last term's pragmatism to a more progressive approach in this second season is failing.

This failing tactical shift has made Sunderland far weaker in defence, leaving dangerous gaps for the opponent to exploit, and has also exposed the diminishing physicality of out-of-form Sunderland captain Granit Xhaka and this team's overall severe lack of creativity in attack, barring Le Fee.

Selection-wise, Le Bris is also making mistakes as well as tactically, with the Sunderland boss bemusingly failing to make any changes at half-time on Saturday as the Black Cats went into the interval 2-0 down after an abject 45 minutes.

Given how poor Sunderland have been this season in the Premier League, it is clear to see that Le Bris does not know his best starting XI currently, and this is yet another damning indictment of the current plight over the Stadium of Light this season.

Typically, a football team will make more individual errors when being shoehorned into a system that doesn't suit their best attributes and exposes their weaknesses, and that has clearly been the case so far.

Simply put, Sunderland are conceding too many, have less control in midfield, and are worse in attack both in terms of chance creation and finishing.

Only time will tell whether the under-pressure Black Cats boss will persist with this attempted tactical evolution of Sunderland, or revert to last season's structure in a ply to salvage some desperately needed points.

However, one thing is certain: if the Frenchman does not find the solution to Sunderland's many tactical and structural problems that have resulted in their shocking start to the season, his time could be called by the Stadium of Light decision-makers sooner rather than later.

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