Sunderland have a made a positive start to their first European campaign in 53 years

Régis Le Bris says he will look to keep a strong core to his starting XI as much as possible in the Europa League.

The Black Cats kicked off their campaign with a 1-0 win over AZ Alkmaar at the Stadium of Light last week, a huge result given that the Eredivisie side are one of the top seeds in the competition. As expected, Le Bris rotated his side in a busy week of games, making four changes and handing starts to players such as Wilson Isidor, Omar Alderete and Trai Hume.

The Sunderland head coach nevertheless named a very strong side, with the likes of Granit Xhaka and Nordi Mukiele retaining their places. Le Bris says that while injuries could impact his plans, he wants to maintain that approach not only to ensure the team can try to progress in the competition, but also because he believes it will help those who come into the side perform better in a generally settled structure.

"It's always positive to keep the core and structure to help others perform," Le Bris said.

"If it's possible to keep it, we'll try, but at times you know some of them will have to recover. At the minute, it's possible [to take this approach]."

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While a demanding schedule will inevitably pose challenges for the Black Cats, Le Bris believes one big benefit is that the experience will accelerate the development of his side as they face a number of new tests.

"I think the best training session is the game,"' Le Bris said.

"We are in a really good place because we are learning and experiencing many tough situations that are hard to replicate in training. The most efficient process is the competitive game.

The challenge is to recover quickly and analyse quickly, because while we prepare for the game, to keep the most of every game, you have to analyse deeply. So that's part of my job, to deliver in a short period of time what were the most important experiences, positive and negative."

Sunderland are next in Europa League action when they travel to Leiria to face Torreense on October 15th.

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