Sunderland made a positive start to their Premier League return against West Ham United last week
Régis Le Bris has praised Sunderland's goalkeeping group for helping Robin Roefs to make an instant impact at the club.
Roefs joined from Eredivisie side NEC Nijmegen for a fee in the region of £11.5 million earlier this summer, and has immediately been installed as the club's number one goalkeeper. Roefs produced an excellent debut against West Ham United, preserving a clean sheet with a strong late save when Wilson Isidor turned a set piece back towards his own goal. The Dutch goalkeeper has also impressed with his poise in possession and aggression coming off his line to deal with crosses.
Le Bris is pleased with the start his new goalkeeper has made and said the 22-year-old himself has stressed the importance of his team mates in his strong start.
"It was good, really good," Le Bris said of Roefs' competitive debut.
"We had a short chat this morning [Thursday] and he's really impressed by the early connection he got with his team-mates. When you have a new goalkeeper, number one and you create an early, quick, and nice connection with your team-mates it's really positive for the squad. Simon Moore, Anthony Patterson, Blondy [Nna Noukeu] they welcome very well this new goalkeeper and they create the condition for this performance. It shows how Sunderland works together and how we want to build this togetherness to be efficient on the pitch and it was the case."
Le Bris said recruiting players who could maintain and add to the resilience of last season's squad was a key part of Sunderland's summer recruitment strategy.
"It's a question of the club culture but the players we recruited, I think they have this mindset and it's not always easy to assess this characteristic," Le Bris said.
"But if they run a lot in and out of possession, if after a defeat they stay positive, after a goal conceded they stay positive and continue to play, I think we can get some signs like that to say this player can fit with our identity and so far it was the case. We'll lose sometimes, for sure, so the reaction at that moment will be really important."
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What Robin Roefs has said about the start of his Sunderland career
In an interview with safc.com, Roefs said his debut was one of the best days of his career so far.
“Maybe it was a little bit of understatement! I think it was the perfect Saturday," Roefs said.
"The atmosphere was absolutely crazy and I don’t think the fans could’ve expected a better Saturday than this. The players who have also been here for long time, even they were saying ‘this is something else’. That says enough. A debut for a club is always special but I don’t think I’ve ever had an experience like that. It should be up there."
Like Le Bris, Roefs said the togetherness of the squad across what is sure to be a long and challenging campaign will be key.
"It’s always difficult to stay up when you’re just promoted so this is going to be a really key factor in our game," Roefs said.
"We have to stick together, not just when we win. There are going to be some times when we lose some games but I think if we can stick together, we have enough qualities to do some good."
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