'I wasn't sure...' - Ex-Sunderland boss Gus Poyet delivers verdict on Regis Le Bris
Sunderland have enjoyed a fine start to their new campaign under the Frenchman
Former Sunderland boss Gus Poyet has hailed new head coach Regis Le Bris, praising the Frenchman for his “intelligent” approach and “good brand of football”.
The Black Cats have enjoyed a stellar start to life under Le Bris, and have won five of their opening six Championship matches since his arrival over the summer. At the time of writing, they currently occupy an automatic promotion spot and have kept four clean sheets, including a resolute shutout against local rivals Middlesbrough at the Stadium of Light over the weekend.
And Poyet has admitted that he has been massively impressed with his old club in recent weeks, dispelling any doubts that he may have had following their pre-season campaign. Speaking to Football League World, via William Hill, he said: “I saw Sunderland in pre-season and I wasn’t sure how they would get on.
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"Fast forward to where we are now and it’s been a very impressive start to the season. I really like the way Sunderland are playing, the coach is doing a great job, he is young and intelligent and has the team playing a good brand of football. The wins so far have been excellent and they are scoring goals and defensively have looked good."
Next up for Le Bris’ side is a trip to Watford on Saturday afternoon before they play their first midweek Championship fixture of the campaign against Derby County at the Stadium of Light next Tuesday.
Reflecting on his side’s victory over Middlesbrough last Saturday, Le Bris said: "After the first defeat [against Plymouth Argyle a week prior], it was difficult because I didn't think the dynamic was broken.
"During the week I felt that the players were very involved, and with still this willingness to improve. We talked a lot about our game model, the way we want to play. At the end we just had the preparation for this game on the last day, and they were very involved in that. It was a tough game, we needed to solve many problems during the game - for example when they overloaded our left side in the first half. I felt our team wanted to work together to solve these problems. They had the momentum in the second half because they wanted to score, but our mindset was very strong.
"This week we spoke a lot about how we want to play - sometimes it is possible and sometimes it is not. During this week I had a good feeling but of course you need to produce against a strong opponent, and the players did that."