Sunderland suffered their third Premier League league loss in a row on Sunday - and their second at the Stadium of Ligth
Régis Le Bris believes Sunderland’s physicality has dipped after they suffered their third consecutive Premier League loss against Fulham on Sunday.
The Sunderland head coach is confident his team can turn the corner and get back to winning ways shortly but also admitted that they are struggling to produce their best in possession. The Black Cats laboured in the first half and though they improved in the break, they missed their best opening of the game before conceding two goals from set plays. Enzo Le Fee’s penalty briefly gave the Black Cats hope, but Alex Iwobi finished a fine Fulham counter attack to settle the contest.
Le Bris insisted there was no need for panic and that his team would stick together in what is their toughest moment of the campaign so far, and rued the ‘key moments’ that they didn’t get right at the Stadium of Light.
“In the Premier League, it's not unusual for us and for every team in the league,” Le Bris said.
“You can be in the top six and you can have a long sequence of poor results, I think we are now in this part of the journey. Resilience, togetherness, consistency, standards - It's always the same values we need and we won't give up. Obviously it's a bit harder, but the journey is always defined like that by key moments. They were negative today. We'll try to find a way to change the situation.
“At the moment, we express less quality with the ball. We are a bit less dominant against direct play as well for the second balls. The momentum can shift sometimes just with one situation because both teams are ready to impose their ideas after those moments. Today we were just okay, not dominant, especially at home. We left an opportunity for the opponent to express their qualities.”
Le Bris feels Sunderland’s dip in energy and intensity is ‘not unusual’, but said he was keen not to make excuses.
“We can feel this small trend,” Le Bris said.
“We are a bit less dominant physically. I don't think it's possible, especially for the first season in the Premier League, to be at the top [for the full season]. It's probably a bad period at the moment, but I repeat, it's not unusual. We have to find solutions rather than searching for excuses. It is what it is. It's not unusual, so just move forward.”
Sunderland left with FIVE new injury concerns after Fulham defeat
After Reinildo was ruled out for a month this week with a knee issue, Sunderland suffered a new injury blow ahead of the defeat to Fulham as Dennis Cirkin suffered an injury in training. Le Bris believes the issue is not serious, but was then handed a number of new concerns in the 3-1 loss.
Nordi Mukiele and Jocelin Ta Bi were both forced off in the first half with injuries, while there are also now concerns over Brian Brobbey and Romaine Mundle.
“It's a bit early to say, so we had Nordi, Jocelin, Brian, maybe Romaine as well, so it was a tough day,” Le Bris said.
“Dennis also missed the game with an injury, at the minute it's a tough period, but it is what it is, we have to accept it and move forward.”
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