It’s been a mixed bag for SAFC this week, we started the week with a solid display against Cardiff City, leaving Wales with all three points. We then swapped out the full eleven to play Preston North End in the Carabao cup. and looked miles off the pace.
Cardiff City
Sunderland starting line-up: Patterson, Hume, O’Nien, Alese, Cirkin, Browne, Neil, Jobe, Roberts, Clarke, Mayenda.
The Black Cats won their first game of the new Championship season under new head coach Régis Le Bris in Wales. New club captain Luke O’Nien scored Sunderland’s opening goal after Dennis Cirkin was able to get on the end of a Patrick Roberts’ free-kick to provide an assist.
The lads then doubled their lead in the second half with Jobe Bellingham and Jack Clarke working the ball down the left, for a cut inside and shoot Clark special, sending the black cats fans behind the goal into party mode.
After the game, O’Nien took to social media to pay tribute to Sunderland supporters. He said: “Great start to the campaign from the boys in Wales. Thank you travelling fans!!!!”
The most notable difference from the end of last season was Sunderland structure and how hard the lads were to break down. Cardiff had plenty of the ball but struggled to open up any space in the final third.
After the game Sunderland boss Regis Le Bris said “It wasn’t easy to start away, especially here at Cardiff. The game was tough.
“We started well I think, and when we scored the goal, the game changed because Cardiff took more risks.
“Sometimes we had some good sequences but for the whole game, it wasn’t dominant. The satisfaction is the team spirit. Even when we were not dominant, we kept the organisation.
“I’m happy because we won and this is our main goal. Sometimes the balance of the game is not the one expected, so we need to deal with it.”
Preston North End
Sunderland Starting Line-up: Moore, J. Anderson, Hjelde, Triantis, Johnson, Mundle, Aouchiche, Ekwah, Rigg, Ba, Rusyn
Regis Le Bris choose to put in a whole new eleven for the Carabao cup game at Deepdale. This level of change got a mixed response from fans, with some saying cup games are the perfect chance to test young players, and give them valuable minutes and experience. But other fans thought it was the wrong choice and shows a lack of ambition in the cup competition.
It was a strategy that didn’t work out on the pitch, with Sunderland never really getting in the game before Ledson opened the scoring for PNE via a deflection in the 37th minute and his Danish team-mate sealed the victory for them with an excellent 70th-minute solo strike.
After the game Le Bris said “It was a good opportunity for players who weren’t involved at Cardiff to show their capabilities against a strong team,” he said. “Preston played with their first team – their strongest team. We had good moments and we didn’t give up until the end so, for me, it is good for the mindset of the team.
“We made some mistakes. This kind of team on set pieces is very strong so the mistakes we made caused us to be unbalanced and we conceded goals on these occasions. They need experiences to grow so obviously when they play together it is never easy,” he continued.
“Today we had a lack of experience but in the end it is a real opportunity to grow. It is a long process when you are talking about the development of the players. We are disappointed because we lost but it is another step towards improvement.”