- Regis Le Bris spoke to media on Friday afternoon
- Discussed Sunderland’s next Premier League match
- Touched on their European football dream
Regis Le Bris has discussed a wide range of topics with the media ahead of Sunderland’s important Premier League trip to Villa Park.
Sunderland are in a good position after consecutive victories over Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur respectively.
The Black Cats may only be 10th in the table, but they are only separated from sixth place Chelsea by two points.
This makes their match against Aston Villa of great importance, and Regis Le Bris has given his thoughts on his team’s current circumstances ahead of the game.
Dan Ballard is fit to play for Sunderland
Last month saw Dan Ballard pick up an injury, but Le Bris has confirmed the defender’s availability this weekend.
However, this is the only positive news to report on the injury front, with other key players still recovering.
Ballard is fully fit – trained normally this week,” Le Bris said. “Nilson, Bertrand and Jocelin still sidelined but still really close to reconnecting to the squad. Possibly for the Forest game.”
On Ballard, he added: “We don’t have to rush. It’s key to build his fitness level rather than rush.”
Le Bris praises his players
This Sunday could see Le Bris face some important decisions, based on how well some of his squad have been performing.
He continued: “The goal of the club is to grow and to do this you need depth and competition. For example Trai [Hume], I think he’s the second highest game time in the squad and he was on the bench last weekend. He was ready to come and did well. It’s about our culture.”
Speaking about Hume and Luke O’Nien, he added: “It’s impressive how they stepped up. We were expected to be relegated early but we hit the 40 point target in March with strong moments and tough moments. It’s impressive.
“Our squad this year is alive – they care a lot when they don’t find a solution during the first half, when they struggle, they want to move and go forward. They want to change the dynamic. This is positive for me.
“It’s key for performance and it helps challenge everyone, including me. It shows standards are high and this is the key point – this is where results come from.”
Le Bris on Aston Villa
Sunderland’s next opponent are currently fourth in the Premier League and recorded a 4-0 win over Bologna on Thursday.
Le Bris said: A big challenge, an exciting one again. They [Villa] are consistent, really well organised and coached.
“Unai Emery is doing a great job. They are consistent when they win and lose which is really important for me: results are unpredictable because football is not a clean science. You can dominate and lose, so it’s about how you manage the club and the consistency.”
However Le Bris still rates Sunderland’s chances, describing his team as having an ‘underdog mentality’.
We have a positive energy in the team at the minute,” he said. “We have an underdog mentality and that’s how we approach it. It’s a big challenge tactically and also their qualities as individuals.
“They are adaptive, can fix problems and also they have gamechangers. It’s an exciting challenge.
“They are in great form, so it’s a big challenge. We want to approach the right way. The approach for us remains the same, keep our daily standards and results will be the consequence of that.
“If we do that, we don’t know what we can achieve. I felt again this week that the energy is growing, it’s positive.”
Europe is not Sunderland’s motivating factor
Le Bris was asked about how he motivated his group of players and he was keen to point out that there is plenty of energy and fight in his squad.
He said: “We had this question with the international break, between November and March was probably the most demanding and the question was there – would we have the same energy? We beat Newcastle and Spurs, the energy in the group was high and so the ambition.”
Speaking about the possibility of European football next season, Le Bris continued: “I don’t think like that. We take it step by step – I can say that we are ahead of our targets so the season is fantastic. Can we go further? We’ll see, we’ll try.”
Sunderland’s full attention will be their next challenge, rather than looking ahead to things which are not set in stone.
Their match against Aston Villa kicks off at 2pm BST on Sunday and will be broadcast live on Sky Sports.
