Sunderland have some major suspension concerns ahead of next weekend’s derby against Newcastle United

Régis Le Bris has dropped a strong hint that he has no intention of resting Granit Xhaka or Noah Sadiki when Sunderland face Manchester City on Saturday.

The pair both sit on four yellow cards for the season, one away from an automatic one-game suspension. It’s a source of nerves for supporters as the Black Cats prepare for the Wear-Tyne derby against Newcastle United at the Stadium of Light next Sunday.

The duo have already come through a handful of games without picking up their fifth yellow and the Sunderland head coach looks set to back them to do so again. After a strong team performance at Anfield in which the Black Cats were good value for their 1-1 draw, Le Bris wants to have the best chance possible of landing another result.

“Today it shows that we can win points everywhere,” Le Bris said.

“So maybe it means that we'll have this opportunity against City. So we'll try to play with our best team, knowing that this [suspension] problem can appear. At the minute I think our players managed the situation properly.”

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What Régis Le Bris said about Sunderland’s performance against Liverpool

Sunderland face a major test against Manchester City but will take some confidence from the strength of their performance against the champions in midweek.

“Maybe the players are a little bit [disappointed] because it was possible we had this opportunity to score the second goal, but mainly they were proud of the way they played because we had different phases in that game,” Le Bris said.

“Dominant with the ball, good in our 4-4-2. Then we worked hard in our back five, 5-4-1 in the low block. So different scenarios, different phases, different emotions, at the end we were consistent.

“We had this opportunity to score the second goal, but it's a good result for both teams. We started well, the first half was interesting with and without the ball. Probably we didn't believe enough that it was possible to score and we did it in the beginning of the second half. I think we were even a bit surprised to have time and space to build up the play and probably they didn't expect to be at that level. We spoke about this final third and the way it was possible to disturb their back line. We expected Salah as well to come on the pitch and to change a bit the dynamics, so we were prepared. We are positive [about the result].”

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