Régis Le Bris reeling from Forest defeat: “It was like a punch in the face”

Régis Le Bris reeling from Forest defeat: “It was like a punch in the face”

A Trai Hume own goal was followed by a six-minute capitulation as Chris Wood, Morgan Gibbs-White and Igor Jesus got on the scoresheet before half-time. Geordie Elliot Anderson added a fifth in second-half stoppage-time.

Following the defeat, Le Bris said: “It’s a strong reminder about the level of the league. When you are not at the level expected, you get punished very quickly because they have good players and are very organised. They were really efficient from set-pieces.

“They were well-organised presses, they were good. We tried to play under pressure, probably a bit naively because it wasn’t possible. So the game was really open and we conceded fouls and gave them opportunities to attack the box.

“We were not intense enough in duels, not clean with the ball and didn’t make the right decisions under pressure and the difference (in the two teams) was big.”

With his side 4-0 down at half-time, Le Bris explained his emotions at the interval.

He said: “It hurt, it was painful because it’s not the face we want to show. For the players, it was like a punch in the face, and for me as well. After that, you can’t complain, you can’t look for excuses, you just have to look forward.

“In the second-half, this was our ambition, at least fight, at least show a strong energy. Show you are proud to be a Sunderland player.”

The Frenchman admitted his team were exposed from set-pieces, with Jesus consistently finding space at the back-post, resulting in three goals for the visitors. He added: “We have a set-up with different layers and I can’t say it worked because it’s clear they targeted this area. It’s not the first time this season, to be fair and we thought about adaptations but today it didn’t work.”

Le Bris also explained the reasoning for Chris Rigg’s half-time substitution.

“It was a tactical decision, I wanted to change the shape to give more intensity with Reinildo so it gave us an opportunity to change the structure, maybe to change the dynamic.

“It was the case in the second-half but we didn’t score. Just win the second-half was my proposal and in the end, it wasn’t even the case.”