With the Head Coach forced into some heavy squad rotation against Millwall, a chance has appeared for Abdoullah Ba and Adil Aouchiche to prove their value and play their way into Regis Le Bris' plans. RLB also says that Milan Aleksic's chance will come at some point but he has to be patient because of the level of competition in his position.
SAME MODEL, DIFFERENT PLAYERS
“We used this international break to have a review of our game model. We had a presentation this morning and will have another one this afternoon. We were probably onto the third or fourth layer in many different phases, now we have to restart from the first or second layer to master the foundations. But for the mindset of the team it is still the same idea - the identity of the team, the club, of Sunderland. It is that we want to win, we want to play fast and use fast attacks when possible. Out of possession we want to defend together with a compact block. When it is possible to push more and be more aggressive, let's do it, but we want to protect our goal and we have maybe nine or ten clean sheets so far. The identity is still the same but now with different players, different stages and a different opponent as well.”
AOUCHICHE/BA
“They are in the first team group. They were a little bit far from the main selection but they have trained properly, they have played with the under-21s and their mindset is very good. They are ready to be selected.”
MILLWALL SET PIECES
“They are a really strong team on set pieces, that is true, but it is not the first one we’ve faced. It is a characteristic of many teams in this league. So far we have defended well in this phase so we have to maintain that level. So, that is one of their characteristics but not the only one. They have many interesting elements in their game. They have played and won many games so far, it is a good team.”
LIONS IN GOOD FORM
“We never know before. Sometimes you can feel you have your strongest team but you can’t deal with the problem on the pitch, then later with another team you don’t expect anything but on the pitch they are very good. For me, I don’t have any expectations at the moment - just to do our job properly. We have quality on the pitch even with the injuries and suspensions, we will have less references okay but good players are good players, so they can play.”
ALEKSIC NOT FAR OFF
“He is a young player. We spoke about it before, sometimes you are waiting for the right opportunity. That was the case for Tommy Watson for example, he waited for seven or eight weeks without opportunities and now it is done, he has started and will probably start more. He got minutes, experience and confidence. For Milan this is the case - he is a talented player for sure but he has high competition in his zone with Riggy, Browney, Jobe who have all played in that position at the beginning of the season. He has to wait because the competition is like that, but he is working hard. I don’t know if it will happen this weekend, we will see, but he is very close.”
