Regis Le Bris has warned Sunderland what to expect when they host Luton Town at the Stadium of Light tonight. The Hatters travel north needing points as much as the Black Cats, but for opposite reasons.
Luton have struggled after their relegation from the Premier League last season. Having tasted top-flight glory, they had hoped to bounce straight back up but had a terrible start to the season which culminated in highly-rated manager Rob Edwards losing his job.
Luton now sit second-bottom in the Championship table, in comparison to fourth-placed Sunderland. It means it is a game that the Black Cats should be winning if they are to keep up a promotion push, but Le Bris has warned his side to be ready for a battle.
He said: “There will be no gifts. It’s always like that. We have to play our best football. “They will focus on their strength, so they will be direct and they are very good at set-pieces.
“We want to play with our identity and impose our way of playing so that’s to do with us.
“We have to expect unpredictability, we have to expect everything. They should stick to their style, their strength but at the same time they can try many things.
“They can be dangerous opponents. They are struggling but we know they will react. We don’t know when, so it’s up to us to keep to our level.”
Facing more physical teams like Luton has become a bit more problematic for Sunderland in recent games and Le Bris added: “I don’t know whether it’s a weakness. It’s just a question of style. You have a different style of play and you have to have players to play with that ambition.
“When we have to face teams who have big physical attributes we can struggle. But at the same time we have the potential, the solutions in the team, to solve many problems against this type of team.
“Against Watford we lost a little bit of organisation because at home we want to be dominant. When we had to run after the ball for long periods, rather than concentrate on our organisation, we tried to run more and that created an imbalance and gave the opposition an advantage.
“The game at Luton [won 2-1 in October] was this idea. We were well-organised and from that foundation we had to fight. Against Watford it was just a good reminder because our organisation is still fragile. Sometimes it’s not because we are lazy, it’s the opposite because we want to run more and create more.”
It’s all a learning curve for Le Bris too. The Sunderland job is his first in English football after a successful spell in France and he is having to adapt to the intensity of life in the Football League.
Asked whether his coaching style suits the Championship he added: “Its always an evolution. I am learning and I want to learn. We have new staff, different staff, and it’s a new experience and I like these experiences.
“The connection is very good. I enjoy the connection with the players. They want to learn, they want to play together and they want to solve problems in real time. I like that in my players.”
View news Source: https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/regis-le-bris-makes-personal-30988606
