Sunderland head coach Régis Le Bris wants his team to improve after the games against South Shields and Gateshead

Régis Le Bris wants to see his Sunderland players improve during pre-season as he continues to learn about his squad.

The Black Cats head to Spain this week as part of their 2024-25 campaign preparations with games pencilled in against Nottingham Forest and CD Eldense. Le Bris took charge of Sunderland for the first time last weekend as his squad played a double-header of games on Saturday.

The Wearsiders won 5-0 against South Shields before losing 2-1 to Gateshead later that afternoon. Le Bris, however, says he is enjoying his early days at Sunderland as he begins to learn more about his squad ahead of the new Championship season.

“I feel good. I feel great because the welcome is fantastic,” Le Bris said after the games against South Shields and Gateshead.” Obviously, I'm still getting to know each other at the training centre, the players, of course, but also all the people who work here. I feel good, really.

“After two weeks of technical and physical reconditioning, for me, it was the real start of the season because we are here to play games and it's our pleasure. So it was interesting. Two different scenarios, two different teams. They were mixed and I felt that the players tried to express their ideas.”

Asked what he had learned about his team during the opening two pre-season games, Le Bris added: “We want to build a strong unit, a strong team with ideas in different phases of the game. So we want to be a proactive team. For sure, we have talented players, but the ideas behind all this preparation is to be a team and I think we can build this team. But we need some time and different experiences to achieve that goal.”

“We'll have many times to get to know each other,” Le Bris said about Sunderland’s upcoming trip to Spain. “I think it's also one of our main purposes, but we'll have time also to go deeper in the different tactical principles. So I'm waiting for that moment to increase our level. Because we will play against two stronger teams also, we'll have other experiences.

Asked what he would like to get out of the trip to Spain, Le Bris responded: “We need to improve. These two experiences will be very useful to understand where we are at the moment. For sure, we always need better opponents to increase our level. I hope this season will be interesting for that.”

Sunderland will face Blackpool at Bloomfield Road (July 27) and Bradford City (July 30) at Valley Parade when they return to the United Kingdom from Spain. Le Bris’ side will round off their pre-season preparations on the weekend of August 3 with the opponent yet to be confirmed.

Le Bris included new signing Simon Moore alongside Abdoullah Ba and Nectar Triantis in his Spain squad after the trio missed out on the games against South Shields and Gateshead with minor injuries. Niall Huggins and Jenson Seelt, who both suffered long-term injuries last campaign, will join Sunderland’s travelling party as they continue their rehabilitation.