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The opinions of one former Sunderland star have sparked a rallying response in favour of Regis Le Bris.
Sunderland beat Coventry City at the CBS Arena in the first leg of their Championship play-off semi-final.
It wasn’t a pretty performance by Regis Le Bris’ side, but Dan Ballard proved to be a rock at the back for Sunderland, whilst Wilson Isidor and Eliezer Mayenda returned to goalscoring form.
Sunderland didn’t quite offer fast-flowing, beautiful football, but this worked against Frank Lampard’s Coventry City, who were unable to deal with the regimented Black Cats outfit.
Whilst one Sunderland favourite has given his ‘honest’ views on the performance that he was admittedly far from happy with, Black Cats fans have responded by showing support to French boss Le Bris.
Sunderland fans respond to Julio Arca claims over performance vs Coventry City
Sunderland will go into the second leg of the play-offs with a one-goal advantage to their name, a feat that prior to Friday’s game seemed unlikely because of the Black Cats’ recent awful form.
Whilst the pressure was on Sunderland to perform after five defeats on the spin, scoring just once in that shoddy run of form, they showed what they needed against Coventry.
Unfortunately, former Sunderland player Julio Arca wasn’t too happy with the performance, stating, via Sunderland Echo: “Fantastic result for Sunderland tonight, but let’s be honest, another bad performance in my opinion. No patterns of play, possession was bad, the team gave the ball away all the time, and could not keep the ball for longer than 5 seconds. Set pieces not great either.”
Sunderland fans took to social media to have their say on Arca’s words, with many opposing his view. One supporter on X suggested that ‘he makes some good points, however has missed out ultimately what got us over the line, positionally excellent in and out of possession, great finishing and unbelievable work rate/discipline’.
Another fan suggested that the performance was ‘what is needed’ in such circumstances, whilst another believed that Sunderland ‘matched’ Coventry City, which was all that was required.
Another Sunderland fan disagreed with Arca, as he said: “It’s not beautiful to watch but we defended immensely and the strikers delivered when they needed to.” This follows up the views of another supporter who suggested that it was a ‘tactically brilliant defensive performance and result’.
Regis Le Bris responded perfectly after previous Coventry City clash at CBS Arena
Many Sunderland fans won’t want to be reminded of the previous clash against Coventry City in the regular Championship season, a game that saw Lampard outsmart Le Bris as he masterminded a 3-0 win.
The defeat left Sunderland deflated, and it seemed to be the start of a dire run of performances and results for the side, which looked nowhere near the ability of Coventry.
The fact that after such a poor run Sunderland were able to turn around their fortunes with a brilliant run against Coventry shows that maybe form going into the play-offs doesn’t quite make a huge difference, but that Le Bris has the tactical acumen to set up his side to nullify the opposition, as opposed to narrow-mindedly going for the same set-up each game.