HAWAY THE PODCAST!
Have you heard about Haway The Podcast, the official Roker Report Podcast? We’d love you to check it out and give it a listen!
CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT MORE!
Dan Ballard, Brian Brobbey, Granit Xhaka and the incredible atmosphere at the Stadium of Light may have monopolised the headlines after Saturday’s battling draw, but there was one key individual whose part in the proceedings appears to have been somewhat overlooked, and the quiet, studious and slightly enigmatic Frenchman who’s coached and moulded this group of players into a tight, cohesive unit flew somewhat under the radar in the wake of the result against Arsenal.
Régis Le Bris has a good command of the English language but there’s one particular word and its derivatives that he regularly returns to: connection.
Sunderland manager Regis Le Bris before the Premier League match at the Stadium of Light, Sunderland. Picture date: Saturday November 8, 2025. (Photo by Owen Humphreys/PA Images via Getty Images)
Sunderland manager Regis Le Bris before the Premier League match at the Stadium of Light, Sunderland. Picture date: Saturday November 8, 2025. (Photo by Owen Humphreys/PA Images via Getty Images)
PA Images via Getty Images
He’s taken the carefully-assembled squad at his disposal — some of them remaining from the promotion-winning cohort and most having arrived from leagues across Europe — and built connections across the different areas of the team and across different phases of play.
He’s changed formation to combat the threat of the opposition and to best accommodate the talents of the players now available to him. His 5-2-3 setup quickly transitions to 4-3-3 when we have possession, with the likes of Trai Hume and Lutsharel Geertruida seamlessly stepping forward into midfield to compliment the tireless running of Noah Sadiki and “Captain Fantastic” Xhaka.
On Saturday evening, it was Hume whose beautifully-flighted ball from midfield allowed Ballard to inevitably win his aerial challenge and set up Brobbey for the equaliser that sent the whole stadium into raptures, but there was a passage of play just before Brobbey scored and on Sunderland’s left flank which went largely unnoticed — and it came as a direct result of Le Bris’ bravery and tactical nous.
He’d already completely changed his entire front line in the sixty fourth minute, with Wilson Isidor, Enzo Le Fée and Bertrand Traoé replaced by Brobbey, Chemsdine Talbi and Simon Adingra. But as the game headed towards the end of the ninety minutes, he withdrew Geertruida and replaced him with Eliezer Mayenda.
There was no transition from 5-2-3 to 4-3-3 this time — Le Bris positioned Mayenda on the right and sent Talbi to join Adingra on the left, as the squad shifted to a 4-2-4 formation, with Hume continuing to forage into midfield to supplement Xhaka and Sadiki.
SUNDERLAND, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 8: Trai Hume of Sunderland and Leandro Trossard of Arsenal during the Premier League match between Sunderland and Arsenal at Stadium of Light on November 8, 2025 in Sunderland, England. (Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images)
SUNDERLAND, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 8: Trai Hume of Sunderland and Leandro Trossard of Arsenal during the Premier League match between Sunderland and Arsenal at Stadium of Light on November 8, 2025 in Sunderland, England. (Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images)
Getty Images
Play became concentrated towards the left touchline as Talbi and Adingra sought to work an opening between them, with Xhaka repeatedly directing the ball back towards them and dragging the Arsenal players into that area of the pitch.
When an attempted clearance found its way to Hume, he had the time and space to look up and spot Ballard lurking dangerously inside the eighteen-yard box. Suddenly, the only defender competing with Brobbey for the ball was Gabriel, and the muscular Dutchman was able to withstand his attentions and guide it over the onrushing David Raya.
There’s a stark contrast between how Le Bris uses his substitutes in the Premier League and how he used them in the Championship, and it’s rooted very much in the quality of the players now wearing red and white.
Last season, towards the final thirty minutes of matches, there were many occasions when the players on the field were visibly tiring but when Le Bris turned to the bench behind him, he didn’t see the options that he needed.
Youngsters Jobe Bellingham and Chris Rigg were probably the most obvious examples of players who were clearly flagging and who should have been withdrawn but often weren’t, and changes were made late, if at all. It would’ve been been easy to mistake Le Bris’ reluctance to change personnel as stubbornness but any suggestion of that has been quickly dispelled.
SUNDERLAND, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 08: Regis Le Bris, Manager of Sunderland, gestures during the Premier League match between Sunderland and Arsenal at the Stadium of Light on November 08, 2025 in Sunderland, England. (Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
SUNDERLAND, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 08: Regis Le Bris, Manager of Sunderland, gestures during the Premier League match between Sunderland and Arsenal at the Stadium of Light on November 08, 2025 in Sunderland, England. (Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
Getty Images
Premier League Le Bris is able to take a totally different approach — he has full confidence in the players behind him on the bench, and now regularly introduces three, four and sometimes five substitutes during a game.
His changes are often being made much earlier, posing new challenges for the opposition before they make changes of their own. He’s adopted the full squad mentality of a rugby coach, with ‘starters’ and ‘finishers’, and in doing so, he’s able to keep players on the fringes of the team fully engaged.
We’re seeing the benefits of having a squad that allows Le Bris to exercise the full range of his intellectual abilities as a coach.He now has the weapons at his disposal to be able to execute whatever strategy his cerebral mind chooses.
‘Til The End isn’t just about mindset — it’s about having the ability and courage to tactically challenge opponents for the full ninety minutes and beyond. We saw it in the playoff final as Patrick Roberts stepped infield to take up a number ten role and went on to set up Mayenda’s equaliser, and we saw it again on Saturday — much to the chagrin of a frustrated Mikel Arteta.
To paraphrase a recent Paddy Power advert mocking our nearest neighbours, it must be galling for the likes of Arsenal fans to see their team “being out thought by a manager who sounds like a cheese”.