Exclusive: French expert pinpoints Regis Le Bris’ potential undoing at Sunderland
French-based journalist, Luke Entwistle, believes that sacrificing defensive structure and chasing goals could be Regis Le Bris’ potential undoing at Sunderland.
With the start of the Championship season on the horizon, Sunderland’s new boss, Regis Le Bris, will be looking to stamp his philosophy onto the team. The Black Cats slid down the Championship table following the sackings of Tony Mowbray and Michael Beale, which led to a series of poor performances and a loss of morale within the team.
Despite their fall down the table, statistically, Sunderland had one of the best defences in the Championship last season. Having conceded 54 goals, the Wearsiders had the fifth-best defence in terms of goals conceded.
However, with Le Bris likely to adopt an attacking style of football, Entwistle fears that this approach could have implications at the other end of the pitch.
Luke Entwistle reveals Le Bris’s defensive struggles at FC Lorient
After Regis Le Bris’ second and final season in charge of Lorient, the French club finished 17th and were subsequently relegated to Ligue 2. Although the club scored a respectable 43 goals, the club ranked bottom of the division for goals conceded, with 66.
“He really couldn’t keep the goals out,” Entwistle stated exclusively to Football League World, when asked about why his Lorient team could not match his intended philosophies.
“He was someone who was really trying to look for solutions, but he just couldn’t find them and switching from a back four to a back three didn’t really pay dividends as he would have liked.
“The issue throughout was that he couldn’t strike a balance within his side, so what you saw was that they didn’t really have any difficulty scoring goals, but they just couldn’t keep them out the other end. Having conceded 66 in 34 league games, it was the worst of any Ligue 1 team last season.
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