Régis Le Bris confirms Sunderland selection plan for latest pre-season friendly at Bradford City

Régis Le Bris has confirmed his plan to heavily rotate his Sunderland side at Valley Parade on Tuesday night.

Le Bris could change all eleven players for the clash against Bradford City, which is the penultimate fixture of the club’s pre-season campaign. Le Bris have the bast majority of his starters at Blackpool 90 minutes on Saturday and they are therefore expected to have a minimal involvement in this fixture, before returning to the fold against Marseille on Saturday. Le Bris nevertheless sees this game as very important in further embedding his playing style across the whole group ahead of the new season, especially as some of those involved will have a big role to play in the early weeks of the campaign as impact substitutes.

“Saturday was the first time for that starting XI to have 90 minutes, and at this stage of the preparation for the new season it was important for them to play a full match,” Le Bris said.

“Tuesday will be a different team, so for the whole group I think we share the idea that we want to develop. For the, I won't say it's a second team, but for another part of the group it's about the same ideas, another problem with a different team. So let's see, I hope we will be able to take a step forward.”

Abdoullah Ba looks certain to make his first appearance of the pre-season campaign during the game, having returned to the squad as an unused substitute on Saturday. Ian Poveda could also be named in the squad for the first time as Sunderland look to build his match fitness ahead of the new campaign. Le Bris has already confirmed that Elliot Embleton and Timothee Pembele will be involved after missing out on the squad at the weekend.

“We have another game on Tuesday [at Bradford] so they will have time to play there,” Le Bris said of their absence at Bloomfield Road.