Phil Smith: I watched Sunderland's Europa League defeat and these were my key conclusions

Sunderland’s form worsened with a 2-0 defeat to Dinamo Zagreb in the Europa League at the Stadium of Light on Thursday night.

Phil Smith was there reporting for The Echo and these were his key conclusions…

Change is starting to feel inevitable after latest Sunderland no-show

Though the frustration and the disappointment inside the Stadium of Light was palpable, that it didn’t turn to outright anger and calls for change is a reflection of what this group of players gave Sunderland fans last season and perhaps more pointedly, what Régis Le Bris has achieved since his arrival on Wearside. Across the board, there is a feeling of sadness that one of the great tenures of Sunderland’s modern era appears to be unravelling at pace.

Sunderland’s problems extend beyond the dugout, this another night where the club’s summer transfer business once again have to go under the microscope given the performance levels. Senior players also continue to fall well short of the standards they set last season, and yet the reality is in modern football the easiest thing to change is the head coach and it feels as if at Sunderland something is going to have to change.

Sunderland did briefly threaten a revival right at the start of the second half but on the whole you would have to say that there was next to no reaction to a dismal defeat at Coventry City. Le Bris at the moment is simply not getting a reaction from the players. Fatigue is an issue and confidence a very obvious one, but it raises the question as to whether two years down the line the messages are no longer getting through in the same way.

Earlier in the season, you could make the valid argument that though the results in the league were poor there was still an intensity and a fight about this team and that offered hope of a revival. Against Bournemouth, Coventry and now Dinamo Zagreb that has not been the case. It isn’t all on the head coach, but that is invariably where the price in football is paid. Chelsea’s visit to the Stadium of Light on Sunday feels like a very obvious crossroads moment for Sunderland and Le Bris.

Sunderland have gone from being one of the hardest teams to play against to one of the easiest

Dinamo Zagreb benefited from a little bit of ‘new manager bounce’ at the Stadium of Light, with their new boss noting afterwards that he had seen the uplift in energy levels across the pitch that he had hoped for coming into the game.

The visitors executed a solid gameplan well, dangerous in transition and with playmaker Luka Stojković offering the necessary quality in the final third to make the difference. They deserve real credit for their display but it has to be said that this Sunderland team is not a difficult one to play against at the moment and that is arguably the saddest aspect of this whole malaise. For the last couple of years Sunderland have been a team no one wanted to play, an awkward opponent who were tough to break down and even tougher to beat. That identity is nowhere to be seen at the moment. The build-up is slow, the man-for-man press looks to be a second too slow all over the pitch and if you stay in the game against Sunderland at the moment they seem almost certain to let you in with a significant error.

It’s an alarming state of affairs and seems to be getting worse rather than better.

A difficult environment - but fringe players can’t take latest chance

Le Bris’s selection seemed to hint that he was not considering significant changes for Chelsea’s visit on Sunday, deploying the same approach as he had done in previous Europa League fixtures. The head coach was tight to note that the side who started the first half was a young one and that this was a difficult scenario for them to play in, but that he had to make four substitutions at half time was a reflection of how the game was going. Put simply, the prospect of a significant overhaul on Sunday seems even more remote now than it did before kick off.

Thomas Meunier’s solid first half means he is surely in line to start, while Chemsdine Talbi’s lack of minutes might just mean he is being lined up to freshen things up. Otherwise, however, it is likely to be a fairly familiar XI and a big improvement is required.

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Defensive issues continue

There isn’t really any area of the pitch that is functioning particularly well for Sunderland at the moment they continue to struggle badly for consistency and stability at centre back. Nordi Mukiele’s quality means that he will be a big miss anytime he is absent, and perhaps one of the few reasons to hope for a revival on Sunday is that he is expected to return from a concussion to feature. Dan Ballard is also a consistently big miss for Sunderland, given the intensity he brings to the backline and the fact that the development in his game over the last few years means he makes few errors in possession even if playing out from the back is not his most obvious strength. Both have missed a lot of football this season, and as such it’s no great surprise that Sunderland’s foundations have suffered as a result.

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