Sunderland boss delivers clear Nottingham Forest verdict and fires warning to his players

Sunderland resume their Premier League campaign when they face Nottingham Forest on Saturday

Régis Le Bris has warned his Sunderland side that it is only a matter of time before Nottingham Forest begin to turn performances into goals under Ange Postecoglou.

As such, Le Bris says his side simply have to be at their very vest if they are to get a positive result at the City Ground on Saturday evening. Nottingham Forest have not won since Postecoglou replaced Nuno in the dugout, but all four of his fixtures so far have been played away from home.

Postecoglou's side were also minutes away from beating Real Betis in their Europa League opener on Wednesday night, eventually drawing 2-2 after a late goal.

Le Bris was asked if he felt it was a good time to play Nottingham Forest in his pre-match press conference, but underlined the strength within the opposition squad.

"We'll see at the end of the game, I still believe they have a really strong squad and that they are well coached," Le Bris said.

"Sometimes you are not efficient and clinical, but you can generate many chances. I think it's probably the case for them at the minute. So we don't know when they will become clinical, I hope it won't be against us and so the main point for is to try and stay consistent, try to improve our of playing to be more efficient.

"What we know about them: strong squad with many threats, winger strikers, good footballers, well organised, offensive, with a strong mindset. So they are a dangerous opponent. That's obvious. We won't have gifts from them. So it's very very obvious, we have to to play our best football and to to try to control their their threats and to to play an offensive and proactive football to score."

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Ange Postecoglou delivers verdict on Nottingham Forest progress ahead of Sunderland clash

Postecoglou is relishing the prospect of his first home game in charge and says he is pleased with the signs of progress in his team.

“I think we're definitely making progress," he said.

"The football's certainly gradually getting to the place where we want. The results haven't been what we wanted, but that's not because of lack of performance. For me, that's the most important thing.

“If we weren't playing well or weren't developing our football, then the results would be more of a concern. But there's certainly enough for me, from what I've seen in the games I've been in charge, to show me the players are really responding and we're definitely heading in the right direction."

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