New Sunderland Head Coach Regis Le Bris says he wants Sunderland to play with intensity and aggression, as well as playing exciting football which will get the fans off their feet.
PROACTIVE
"We spoke about it with the players on Wednesday morning. I believe that the identity of the team must be linked with the history of the club and the city, and the fans. We have to gain their energy and so we want to be a proactive team."
FIND A BALANCE
"That means having an idea in every phase of the game, in defence, attack, counter-pressing, set pieces, I explained that it's a question of balance: the Championship is very long, the games are 100 minutes now. The main identity is intensity, so high pressing is very important and so too is the speed of our attacks. But also we have to control the game in other moments, and we have to be able to deal with different circumstances."
PLAY TO OUR STRENGTHS
"All the players have a style of play. We need to adapt to be able to use their strengths but I think this team can press high, they did well in many games last season but just weren't consistent enough. Also, the technical level is high so we can have fast attack, maybe six, seven, eight passes to reach the goal, but also we can control the game, so it's a question of balance. If we share this intention, we can have a very energetic game and hopefully it will be very exciting for the fans."
TALKING FORMATIONS
"With my experience at Lorient, I had the opportunity to test many systems because of the turnover in players. I like a 4-4-2 in defence and a 4-3-3 in attack because I think these two systems are very versatile and you can do many things within them in terms of the triangles, the links and the relationships between the players. This could be the first step for the team, from where we can analyse and assess if it works. If not, we can change. But the identity of the team is important and it's better to keep a system for a while and to see how it develops, and the areas where you make improvements."
