Ex-Sunderland icon Marco Gabbiadini outlines 'huge problem' facing Regis Le Bris ahead of play-offs

Former Sunderland striker Marco Gabbiadini has suggested that the Black Cats are in danger of ending their season “with a whimper” if they don’t find a way of lifting their level of performance heading into next month’s Championship play-offs.

Regis Le Bris’ side are currently on a run of four successive league defeats, and while some of those results have been caveated by the fact that the head coach has rested and rotated certain key members of his squad of late, Saturday’s 2-0 loss at the hands of Oxford United came with a starting XI that was much closer to Sunderland’s strongest.

And with just one fixture left to play in the regular league schedule - a home clash with QPR this coming weekend - Gabbiadini has questioned whether Le Bris may have made an error of judgement by tinkering with his side so frequently in recent outings.

What did Marco Gabbiadini say about Sunderland’s form heading into the play-offs?

Speaking to BBC Radio Newcastle’s Total Sport about Saturday’s upcoming clash with QPR, he said: “It’s a strange one, isn’t it? It’s a dead rubber, really, isn’t it? I think the players... are they playing for their places? You’d probably say that 70-80% of them haven’t really got a challenge, have they? They know who the best team is, most of the players. That’s an issue.

“And there are some quite startling figures. We’ve scored eight goals in our last 12 games. That is a huge problem. To bounce back from that... Look, I’ve said this numerous times, you don’t have to win both legs 3-0 to win a play-off. Two 0-0 draws and a penalty shootout will do it - there are lots of ways for it to work. But at the moment, we’re conceding as well.

The Echo has launched a new WhatsApp SAFC Channel to bring the latest news, analysis and team & injury updates direct to your phone. Simply click this link to join our SAFC WhatsApp channel.

“So is it going to backfire on them? We talked about this three or four weeks ago, this situation - managing it, resting players, not playing your best team, giving people a break, giving some experience to the players who have not has had as many minutes this year. But is it going to backfire if they can’t lift their game next week [against QPR], but obviously more importantly for the semi-final legs? Is that going to be the way we go out this season, with a whimper? Because it has been a whimper for the past three or four weeks.”

Your next Sunderland read: 'Ideally...' - Sunderland writer Phil Smith on whether Le Bris will start Isidor or Mayenda in play-offs