RLB mentioned some of his coaching influences but said he takes specific aspects from a whole range of coaches. He spoke about his passion for developing young players and was also asked about the multitude of managers before him who have had short tenures at SAFC.
MANY INSPIRATIONS
“Many, many coaches. We can find many ideas in Europe, and now we have great access to lots of videos and wide angles, which is very useful to understand the ideas. I liked Guardiola when he was at Barcelona for example, De Zerbi when he was at Sassuolo and Shakhtar Donetsk. We won’t play like Guardiola or De Zerbi, because we are Sunderland and I am Regis Le Bris. But these ideas help us to find inspiration in the way of solving problems. For example, how to build the game from the goalkeeper, some coaches are very strong in this phase so we can use their principles sometimes and try to implement it in our way of thinking.”
NO TIME FOR THE EUROS
“I have no time to watch the games because I am here with you, with the players, with the club, and I have no time. Even the French team, they won but I didn’t watch their game.”
PASSION FOR YOUTH
“It is one of the main reasons we met each other, I think. I knew that there was interest in coaches who were able to develop young players. I think I was searching for this vision, this kind of organisation to be able to improve a team. It really is a way of thinking. You can buy many players, put them on the pitch and their talent will solve everything. But in France when I was at Lorient, our ideas as a club was always about development. For 20 years I have always been this kind of coach. I improved my way of thinking, with my coaches and my teammates, to be more efficient to develop the team. I think it explains that we are here together because that is my methodology and it is my way of developing the club here at Sunderland.”
EXPECTATIONS
“Expectation is about the process, I think. The result is always uncertain. If we focus on the development of the work of the team, the link we have together, the vision, that is the best way to obtain the best results possible.”
SAFC HOTSEAT
“This job is very unstable. We all know we need some results, we need confidence, we need support to achieve our goals. It is always uncertain and we need to accept these rules as a coach. It’s different when you are director of a youth academy for example. I believe in the process and believe in the vision so I’m confident but obviously we need to be lucky sometimes, and we need to work hard. I believe in the hard workers.”
