Sunderland are bottom of the Premier League with five points, booed by their own fans at Coventry, and the manager says he is still “no doubt” about the support of the owner. I’m not sure it should be. Mistakes take the blame, but I think the bigger problem is what’s going on around them.
Saturday’s 3-1 defeat at Coventry City was their sixth of the season and their 20th league win from nine games. This victory was won on August 30 against “Fulham”. Regis Le Bris, who led the club to seventh place last season, admits they are now in a relegation battle.
Coventry were in the bottom three before kick-off. It was a game Sunderland should have won after beating Brentford 3-2 in the League Cup on Wednesday and instead Frank Lampard’s side climbed out of the drop zone at their expense.
A comfort is emptiness. Sunderland are just two points behind Manchester United in 17th place.
How hard is Regis Le Bris?
Just ask him a question. Pressed after the game about whether he still had the support of owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus and director of football Florent Ghisolfi, he said: “I have no doubt.” He added: “So, my 100 percent fight. I feel the unity of the club.”
He didn’t argue with the trip either. “Totally understandable” said about the boos. No decision has been made and it is unlikely that one will be made this week, but the run ahead is far from smooth: Dynamo Zagreb in the Europa League on Thursday, Chelsea at home on Sunday, then the international break before the trip to Aston Villa.
Clubs like to make these calls during the international break. It will be a long fortnight for Chelsea if it goes badly.
Are these really individual mistakes?
That’s the line coming out of the dressing room, and seemingly Coventry’s arms are backing it. Trai Hume beat his teammate and Tatsuhiro Sakamoto opened the scoring after 17 minutes. Taiwo Awoniyi took the ball from them for the second time in his own half, while Jack Rudoni’s shot in the 52nd minute was a huge deflection in the third.
Le Bris called it “Two unforced errors” and went further: “This inconsistency is absolutely unacceptable. Consistency is the key word in this league. If you keep making individual mistakes, the opposition will kill you.” Granit Xhaka was still outspoken. “Every weekend we make the same mistakes and every weekend we get punished” he said. “If we don’t do the basics, forget everything else.”
Here’s my issue. When the same mistakes are repeated every weekend, you have to stop looking only at the men who made them and start looking at the formations they want to play. Sunderland struggle to build a third with any regularity and defenders with few options and spaces make poor decisions. Le Bris said to himself half-heartedly: “Maybe we were a bit too exposed or not strong enough in different areas of the pitch.”
The other side tells the same story. Sunderland had 17 shots and just two on target at Coventry and have one league goal in their last four games, which was Enzo Le Fee’s penalty on Saturday. When a side’s victories depend more on individual quality than on a system that creates chances in volume, that’s a coaching question.
Why was Talbi on the bench?
This is what confuses me the most. Chemsdine Talbi played as a number 10 against Brentford and scored, Malik Fofana scored his first Sunderland goal and Jocelin Ta Bi provided three assists. Three days later, Talbi started on the bench and £26m Fofana came on with just 15 minutes to play.
Talbi only came on after the third goal, Nilson Angulo was replaced by Wilson Isidor and Chris Rigg replaced him. He immediately looked at Sunderland’s busiest player. Slipping one-on-one in the 59th minute, he beat Carl Rushworth but rolled it the wrong side of the post. Yes, this is his chance to score. But he was the one who came to these positions.
The crowd chanted his name during the Brighton defeat too and I can’t see why a manager in that position wouldn’t use a player who keeps things going. Whatever happened to Saudi Arabia in the summer, look at it as if it stays. Isidor and Brian Brobbey are just coming back from injury, so patience is needed, but the broader point stands: Le Bris doesn’t seem like a coach who tries everything.
To be honest, the second half was better. Le Fee scored after VAR awarded a handball against Ethan Pinnock in the 66th minute and Luke O’Nien was twice denied by late blocks. Le Bris said “We changed the pace of the game”. But it was 3-0 down and ended with Omar Alderete being sent off for his second booking in the dying seconds. How many times have Sunderland supporters been told the corner has been turned?
Isn’t Europe taking some time for him?
This is his best argument, and he made it. “In the first year in Europe, you know that the average will be 10 points less” Le Bris said. “This is our reality.” Sunderland are unbeaten in Europe and in the quarter-finals of the League Cup, so this is not a defunct club. And the summer didn’t help him, with no specialist right-backs arriving, a gap they could still try to fill in January.
But I cannot accept this as a complete explanation. The numbers below were already worrying in seventh place last season and on Saturday Sunderland were beaten by a side who were themselves in the bottom three. It’s hard to blame a stretched lineup when guys who played so well on Wednesday aren’t trusted to start on Saturday.
It’s also without Dan Ballard and Romaine Mundle, which is a real blow, but no squad at this level goes through an intact season.
Should Sunderland sack Regis Le Bris?
I think it’s about time, and I don’t say that lightly. He earned plenty of credit on Wearside and promotion in seventh place is a record no one should forget. Two points out of 17th place means nothing is lost yet, which is exactly why this drift can’t happen.
But the play patterns, build structure, and squad usage aren’t improving, and I don’t see anything changing them from here. “We will not surrender” he says and I believe him. But unless Dinamo Zagreb and Chelsea show something very different, Louis-Dreyfus should use the international break to make a change while he still has a season to spare.