Sunderland sit five points clear at the top of the championship after 12 games and are looking to make it four wins from four when they travel to face QPR on Saturday afternoon. Sunderland’s young side have won praise from supporters and neutrals alike for their brilliant form, but Le Bris has been quick to remind all that it is the team spirit and cohesion they have shown that have been the bedrock of their form. Maintaining that is key to their promotion hopes, he said.
“For the first part at Lorient, we had this,” he said.
“Then we struggle! It is clear about the amount of points and the amount of wins we need. We are in a good place; this is very clear but we know that we have a long journey ahead of us. For the players, it could be a problem, yes, because it is new. I think our main strength is our connection as a team and if you have a big success as we have so far this season, you can receive the praise and you can become selfish or you can lose your consistency. It’s a very important idea to keep this connection, and one of my main concerns as head coach is to detect if this happens, because it can be very subtle. I’m aware this could be a problem.”
Le Bris says the arrival of Pedro Ribiero as assistant head coach is allowing him to take an occasional back seat in the running of training sessions, which he says will better help him pick up any signs of complacency within the squad.
“Now, we have a size of staff where we can assess these things,” he said.
“Now, as a head coach, I can sometimes have a little distance from the training sessions. This allows me to observe people, to understand their feelings, and to feel if something is going wrong or whether we are still on the right road.”
While Jobe Bellingham and Chris Rigg have been in outstanding form at the heart of Sunderland’s side, Le Bris says he has seen enough from both to be confident that they will not be carried away with the hype.
“I am confident for them because I have worked with so many young players before, and I can feel when they may get carried away,” Le Bris explained.
“But that is not the case with them because they like playing football so much. Instead of enjoying what is around football, they like playing the game, they want to improve, and they like talking about their development. So if their main concerns stay the same, I am very confident about them. They are still young, so we will keep paying attention and caring about them.”
