REGIS LE BRIS admits Sunderland’s league position is “a worry” after the club’s Premier League woes continued with a 2-0 defeat at Bournemouth.
With Kevin Danso’s 17th-minute dismissal meaning the Black Cats had to play for more than three-quarters of the game with ten men, goals from Marcus Tavernier and Evanilson condemned the visitors to a deserved defeat at the Vitality Stadium.
The defeat means Sunderland have still claimed just one league victory this season, and leaves Le Bris’ side in 19th position in the table. If Tottenham avoid defeat against Coventry City tomorrow, the Black Cats will drop to bottom spot ahead of Thursday’s return to European action at Lech Poznan.
When Sunderland were losing to Arsenal and Manchester City, it was possible to claim that they were in a false position in the domestic standings. In the wake of disappointing displays against Brighton and Bournemouth, however, it is becoming increasingly hard to brush off the club’s domestic situation as a minor concern.
“It [the league position] is absolutely a worry,” said Le Bris, who was once again forced to listen to Sunderland fans signing for Chemsdine Talbi, who remained an unused substitute. “If you lose games, then it is clear what is going to happen.
“We cannot ignore that. We have to win points, and we have to do that in different conditions and different scenarios. We know that. At the minute, it is not the case. It is not happening, and so the reality of the situation is really clear.”
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Sunderland were punished for some disastrous defending on the south coast, with Danso and Omar Alderete both making dreadful errors.
Danso lost Evanilson in the build-up to Tavernier’s sixth-minute opener, and was sent off when he hauled down the Brazilian forward after miscontrolling the ball. Alderete was also at fault in the incident that led to Danso’s dismissal, ducking out of a long ball, and the Paraguayan handed Evanilson a second-half goal on a plate when his awful back-pass handed possession to the striker.
“A bad day is the right summary,” said Le Bris, when asked to sum up his side’s performance. “It was a tough afternoon. It was a bad start, conceding after six minutes, which was exactly the situation we wanted to avoid.
“By 15 minutes, we were ten men against 11, which meant we had to do that for 75 minutes or even more with the added time. We survived until half-time, changed the shape to manage the game differently, and I think we were well-aligned. But then after one or two minutes of the second half, we were 2-0 down with another big mistake.
“That basically summarised the afternoon. It was tough to take. It wasn’t the personality of Sunderland, that is for sure. We are in a busy schedule, that’s fair to say, and we are in this learning process. It is not a straight line, but this now is really hard to accept.”
Sunderland have paid a high price for a series of individual errors in recent weeks, with Le Bris admitting the lack of a pattern behind his side’s failings is making it difficult to turn things around.
“It’s always a different player every time [making mistakes], so it is hard to fix,” he said. “There is not really a specific pattern, so it is about accountability, it is about discipline and it is about reading the game well. At the minute, that is not the case and we are getting punished.”
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