“Anyone ordering liquid football?” I quipped in one of Roker Report’s many group chats just seven minutes after Friday’s surrender. Brian Brobbey had just confided in Enzo Le Fée, who brilliantly found Chris Rigg as Sunderland started against Aston Villa full of confidence.
Are we finally free, free from the shackles of ‘reggie ball’ which requires solid defense and clear structure, when we can see Dan Ballard battling five Nottingham Forest defenders before intricately cutting the ball back from the touchline?
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In the space of a few games, we were unfettered in the name of experimentation. Will we finally see Regis’ midlife overhaul unfold in real time? Will he grow a mullet and don Vincent Kompany’s latest Y-3 adidas tracksuit when we take on Wolves?
The baggy look isn’t for you, Reggie, but that’s okay. In fact, our trousers were so baggy against Forest that Vito Pereira’s side had them down to our ankles before half-time. As his compatriot Yves Saint Laurent once said, “Fashion fades, but style is eternal.” Watch out, lads, watch out.
The last two performances were not LeBris’s style. We know this, but the slightly awkward super nerd in us who undoubtedly has a massive data center dedicated to ranking Bourdelais wines has at some point had to take a dip in the fountain of Pep Guardiola and Roberto De Zerbi. If not as a social experiment, just to prove a point. Because we are Sunderland and he is Réges Le Bris.
It’s fun to watch us play a style of football that is clearly different from the Reggie style. So funny, in fact, I felt “Ole’s” coming at 0-0.
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Unfortunately, it turns out that going head-to-head against a very, very good offensive outfit is not a good idea. Despite my abiding love for Luke O’Nien, he spent most of his time either on the bum or running back to his own goal at Villa Park – a quintessential image of this mini-trial. Trai Hume was badly exposed last Friday and we struggled from set pieces as our visitors scored three goals from dead ball situations.
Of course, many point to the departure of our assistant head coach Luciano Vulcano as the catalyst for the defensive failure: the explosion of goals conceded. And the statistics are hard to ignore. We have scored 20 goals in the last 12 games and conceded just 28 in the 25 games before that – a trend that correlates perfectly with Vulcano’s exit. Therefore, although the defensive weakness does not only exist in the past two games, the change in tactics has undoubtedly exacerbated the problems in the back line.
LeBris has seemingly boldly responded to calls to deploy wider, more creative settings, even as he has remained true to the philosophy that has served us so well this semester.
There is understandably pressure on him to get us to “play more”, a possession-based game that easily stands out and is the purest form of football. But it hasn’t come to fruition, at least not yet for us.
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We are at our best when we have the ball, pressuring teams, hitting opponents on the counter-attack and taking advantage of Brombie’s pragmatic, physical midfield and forwards. However, defense is where we really excel, with Ballard and Omar Aldrete complementing each other perfectly and Robin Roofs making no mistakes until a freak incident last week.
Against relegated Wolves on Saturday, I hope to see them return to their former glory. This display encompasses the traits we associate with LeBris and this team. Granted, it’s not the most stylish or eye-catching, but Le Bris’ style is timeless, which is why at this stage we have the opportunity to test new approaches.
