Chemsdine Talbi appears to face an uphill battle to force his way into Sunderland’s side in the Premier League
Régis Le Bris insists that Chemsdine Talbi can still have a key role to play in Sunderland's season and says the winger can look to Tommy Watson for inspiration following a 'tough period'.
Talbi has had very limited Premier League minutes so far this season, and was left out of the Europa League squad due to ongoing transfer talks with Saudi Arabian and Turkish clubs at the time the Black Cats had to name their group for the league phase. Those talks eventually ended with Talbi remaining on Wearside, in part due to serious injuries suffered by Romaine Mundle and Habib Diarra.
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Talbi has since found himself behind Nilson Angulo and Malick Fofana in the pecking order in his strongest left wing position and though he produced a matchwinning performance in the number ten role against Hull City in the Carabao Cup, he has Enzo Le Fée and the nearly fit again Diarra for competition there. It has been a difficult period for the youngster, who was not named in the Morocco squad for the recent international fixtures.
However, that has allowed him to work with his Sunderland team mates at the Academy of Light and the head coach says Watson's example shows what can be done. Watson went through a very difficult spell after a move to Brighton was confirmed, but gradually rebuilt his match fitness and confidence before firing his side to the Premier League with the winner against Sheffield United at Wembley.
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"Yes, we have worked hard during the last few weeks here," Le Bris said.
"It's not been an easy situation to be fair, but we are all involved to solve and fix this situation because it's for him and it's for us. I was thinking about Tommy Watson lately when we spoke about the good moments during the 100 games I've had here. Tommy was a good example. He struggled when he signed to Brighton and had a difficult period, but we stayed true to our beliefs. We reconnected him with the squad and finally he was the scorer just at the end of the season. For Chemsdine, it's exactly the same process. We had a tough period, that's fair, but we took the most of it to get better."
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Le Bris explained that he had wanted to stick with Angulo on the left at the start of this season, having been impressed with his performances against Everton and Chelsea at the end of the 2025/26 campaign. Angulo has one goal and one assist so far in the Premier League, and a strong performance against Man City before the break means he is likely to keep his place against Brighton on Saturday.
"One of the main drivers for the start of the season and how we approached it was the momentum we got last season," he said.
"I was really well aligned with the starting XI at the end of last season and Nilson was really good at that period. We went again with him and then Malick was recruited as well. We know Chemsdine's qualities, but he's also young and needs more maturity. He's just in this period and we need to work with him and keep improving."
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