Regis Le Bris will be reeling at yet more dropped points for his Sunderland side, who lost 2-1 at Leeds United on Monday night.
Dropping points is becoming an uncomfortably familiar feeling for Sunderland. The Black Cats had the lead at Elland Road on Monday, right up until the 78th minute. But Leeds United beat Sunderland 2-1.
Be it inexperience or simply a mental battle, Sunderland are dropping far too many points right now. Inevitably, fans want someone to blame, and it might be Regis Le Bris.
After the Leeds defeat, Sunderland fans criticised Le Bris who once again proved too negative and stand-offish in his approach to taking the lead, going defence against attack but forgetting that he was going up against the league’s best frontline.
The defeat takes Leeds back to the top of the Championship table. Sunderland remain in 4th place but now 10 points behind Leeds and eight behind Sheffield United in 2nd.
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Neil Warnock’s verdict on Sunderland and Regis Le Bris after Leeds United defeat
Speaking in the Sky Sports studio after the game on Monday night, EFL legend Neil Warnock had plenty to say about Sunderland and Le Bris. Mostly, it was positive. The 76-year-old even offered some advice in the way of Le Bris on how he should handle the defeat behind the scenes at the Stadium of Light.
Warnock explained: “It’s a good test for [Regis Le Bris] now at Sunderland. There was nothing wrong with the performance but they’ve got beat. They’re as sick as parrots now. They’re driving back up to Sunderland now and he’s got to be really bright.
“He’s got to get that out of his system before their next training session and just think about what they’ve done well this year, not what they’ve done tonight. He’s got to make it light-hearted and a bit of fun on the training ground for a few days because they’ve done brilliantly tonight.”
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Regis Le Bris simply isn’t learning from past mistakes
In the last few weeks, Sunderland have thrown away points from winning positions in games against Plymouth Argyle, Watford, and now Leeds. Not to mention to the games earlier in the campaign where Sunderland had the lead but took either nothing or a solitary point.
Those points now look to have condemned Sunderland to a play-off place at most. Although at the start of the season, that would’ve been deemed a huge success, which it still would be.
Although Le Bris is still in his first season in English football, it does seem as though this habit of throwing away points, dropping back after taking the lead and making poor changes is something he’s just not learning from.
There’s still 15 games to play this season, though, and Sunderland are showing that they can handle themselves against the Championship’s big-hitters which could prove vital in the play-offs, should they make it there.