Sunderland fans and pundits alike have started to question the way Regis Le Bris is using his players, and with injuries piling up, we decided to investigate the minutes everyone has played across the season.
A bright start to the season for The Black Cats has recently made way for a bit of a slump, with key defeats now seemingly ruling Sunderland out of the automatic promotion race.
Regis Le Bris has taken a lot of criticism over the past couple of weeks, for a plethora of reasons; from the mentality of the team, to the substitutions he has made, and now for overworking certain players.
After Sunderland’s triple injury blow of losing Enzo Le Fee, Dan Ballard, and Jayden Danns for months to come, we wanted to truly dig into whether Le Bris was mismanaging the Sunderland squad, or if it’s simply a case of bad luck.
- READ MORE: Michael Graham hypes up Sunderland’s ability to produce top talent but refutes huge Chris Rigg claim
How many minutes have the Sunderland players played?
Former Sunderland player Danny Collins suggested Le Fee’s injury was inevitable, given the fact the Frenchman had gone from barely featuring for Roma to playing almost every minute at Sunderland.
In addition, Sunderland fans begged for Chris Rigg to be rested after the Luton Town game early in February, and that still hasn’t happened.
So, let’s take a look at the minutes each player in the squad has racked up this season across their respective appearances:
| Player | Appearances | Minutes | Avg mins per game |
| Anthony Patterson | 30 | 2,700 | 90 |
| Simon Moore | 6 | 540 | 90 |
| Trai Hume | 34 | 3,023 | 88.9 |
| Chris Mepham | 26 | 2,227 | 85.7 |
| Dan Ballard | 19 | 1,093 | 57.5 |
| Luke O’Nien | 34 | 2,975 | 87.5 |
| Leo Hjelde | 10 | 211 | 21.1 |
| Aji Alese | 13 | 759 | 58.4 |
| Dennis Cirkin | 30 | 2,435 | 81.2 |
| Dan Neil | 34 | 3,085 | 90 |
| Chris Rigg | 32 | 2,439 | 76.2 |
| Jobe Bellingham | 30 | 2,668 | 88.9 |
| Alan Browne | 12 | 617 | 51.4 |
| Salis Abdul Samed | 7 | 201 | 28.7 |
| Milan Aleksic | 5 | 200 | 40 |
| Enzo Le Fee | 8 | 674 | 84.3 |
| Ian Poveda | 6 | 81 | 13.5 |
| Romaine Mundle | 17 | 1,165 | 68.5 |
| Eliezer Mayenda | 27 | 1,561 | 57.8 |
| Patrick Roberts | 33 | 2,510 | 76 |
| Tommy Watson | 11 | 439 | 39.9 |
| Wilson Isidor | 31 | 2,434 | 78.5 |
For clarity, we have not included the likes of Adil Aouchiche and Nazariy Rusyn, who are now out on loan at other clubs.
Regis Le Bris is leaning on the same ten players week in, week out
So, what have we learned here? Well, for a start, it is glaringly obvious that Le Bris has his favourite players.
There’s nothing wrong with that, per se. It’s great to have an established and consistent starting XI, but the gulf between the ten players with over 2,000 minutes, and the rest of the squad, is frankly huge.
That tells us that Le Bris has not been utilising his fringe players anywhere near enough, and that the likes of Rigg, Trai Hume, Jobe Bellingham, Dan Neil, Luke O’Nien, Wilson Isidor, and Patrick Roberts are undoubtedly playing a disproportionate amount of minutes.
Roberts was picked out for criticism just this week, with a suggestion that he simply does not have the energy to play the style of football Le Bris is asking of him.
But, it’s important to note that the likes of Alan Browne, Salis Abdul Samed, Romaine Mundle, Tommy Watson, and Ian Poveda would likely have played a lot more football this season had they not been missing through injury.
| Player | Games missed through injury |
| Alan Browne | 22 |
| Salis Abdul Samed | 23 |
| Romaine Mundle | 17 |
| Tommy Watson | 15 |
| Ian Poveda | 21 |
We could and should see a bit of a shift in the balance of gametime over the coming weeks now that the above players are all back from their absences.
So, yes, Le Bris is asking a lot of his preferred players, but he’s also been hindered by having a fairly thin squad throughout the season; due to both general squad depth, and injury issues.