This Sunderland legend was not impressed with what Regis Le Bris did against Coventry City.

Sunderland legend Marco Gabbiadini has labelled the move by Regis Le Bris to play Alan Browne as a winger when he came on against Coventry City as ‘absolutely bizarre’.

Sunderland fell to their heaviest defeat of the season thanks to a hat-trick from Haji Wright, with the Black Cats threatening only briefly in the second half in a poor performance. Le Bris admitted that the defeat to Leeds United and its impact on Sunderland's automatic promotion hopes looks to have impacted the squad psychologically, while fatigue is clearly a growing concern 38 games into the campaign.

But it was the decision to bring Browne on in a wide position that sparked the criticism from the Sunderland legend turned pundit. Central midfielder Browne was introduced for Patrick Roberts 12 minutes from time at the CBS Arena.

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"It truly was an awful performance and they got exactly what they deserved but I was quite shocked at the substitutions," Sunderland legend Gabbiadini told BBC Radio Newcastle.

"It was a game that was attritional, about getting to the ball first - why Alan Browne didn't get on the field earlier I've no idea and when he does come on he plays as a winger which is absolutely bizarre."

He added: “We've seen ourselves through games like this in the past but you have to play very well and play very good football to play around teams like that and we got nowhere near it.”

The Sunderland boss had this to say after Coventry City defeat

"I think only at Preston [have we been outplayed like this], but we didn't concede much on that occasion," Le Bris said.

"It wasn't the best version of Sunderland this afternoon. To be fair, Coventry were good. They played good football, they were incisive and intense. We were not able to maintain the level to defend properly. Even if our shape was OK, our intensity in duels and second balls were far from the level expected. With the ball we were sloppy, we couldn't keep it against their pressure. It was a bad game.

"It's hard at the moment to find just one reason to explain the whole the behaviour of the team, so I will have to analyse this," Le Bris added.

"I think after the Leeds game our dynamic was broken a little it, probably our way thinking about automatic promotion. We played well but didn't get any points. After the Hull game we had a good reaction with two wins and a draw, but today we looked exhausted on the pitch. We didn't look like we had the energy to be competitive."

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