Régis Le Bris issues blunt response to promotion talk and outlines the lesson he hopes players have learned.
Sunderland are looking to consolidate their position at the top of the Championship on Saturday
Régis Le Bris hopes his Sunderland side can demonstrate they have learned a valuable lesson from earlier in the season when Oxford United visit the Stadium of Light on Saturday.
The Black Cats go into the game top of the league after two impressive wins away from home, but Oxford’s solid start to the campaign shows they can’t be underestimated. They sit 11th in the table following their League One play-off win earlier this year and have drawn their last five fixtures, a run which included games against Burnley and West Brom.
Le Bris says the defeat to Plymouth Argyle this season shows the dangers of a ‘subtle’ complacency creeping into his side’s play.
“We spoke a lot about complacency after we won the first four games in a row,” Le Bris said.
“Then we lost at Plymouth and complacency was the right word. It was very subtle, it was not massive, just in some of the choices we made. We dominated the first half at Plymouth but after the first goal we didn’t try to score again, it was complacent but tactically. It was not young players being selfish or a conscious decision, it was just subtle [details].”The debrief after that game was
very interesting. We are in a learning environment and this was a bad experience we can learn from. We will see whether we have learned because the reality is on the pitch. We have shown consistency this season because we can’t win eight from 11 without this. Can we keep it going for a long time? That is what we will see.”
Confidence is rightly growing on Wearside after a spirited win at Kenilworth Road in midweek, but Le Bris brushed off any talk of his side being automatic promotion contenders at this stage. The head coach said the win showed the spirit within the squad but said the team still had much that they can improve on within the games themselves.
“We have shown that we are linked, that we want to win together,” he said.
