Regis Le Bris knows how he plans to halt Leeds United in their tracks during Sunderland’s daunting trip to the Championship leaders on Monday night.
Putting that plan into action, and executing it perfectly, is an altogether different challenge, however, as Sunderland travel to Elland Road to conclude the weekend’s action.
Sunderland, sitting fourth and still very much in the automatic promotion picture, can fall ten points off the top of the table if Leeds United secure a fourth successive win, and potentially a seventh successive Championship clean sheet, at an expectant Elland Road.
The visiting Black Cats must strike that difficult balance, then, between playing to their own strengths while simultaneously preventing Leeds from snapping into their rhythm.
Manor Solomon, Dan James and Joel Piroe were ‘unplayable’ against Watford on Tuesday – all three scored in a 4-0 win – while no team in the league has scored as many goals in the opening half hour of games this season.
For the record, James’ quickfire brace at Vicarage Road took that tally to 31.
Regis Le Bris explains what Sunderland must do to stop a rampant Leeds United
“We just have to focus on our game,” Le Bris says in his pre-match press conference.
“We know they are a threat, we know they can be dangerous. So, if we are naive, we can be punished. But, at the same time, if we don’t play our best football it doesn’t mean anything.”
Sunderland’s fine record against to the Championship’s big hitters is, at least, an omen to hang onto. the Black Cats have taken four points off Burnley, beat Sheffield United, and also did the double over north east neighbours Middlesbrough.
Sunderland secured a valiant draw at home to Leeds in October, meanwhile. Albeit a point gift-wrapped and sealed with a kiss by a calamitous Illan Meslier mistake in stoppage time.
“We have played well away against the best teams so far and I think we have good qualities to play against this kind of opponent,” adds the softly-spoken Frenchman in the Black Cats dugout, accepting that the game could be decided on whether Sunderland can keep the perennial fast-starters from charging out of the blocks.
“It’s a question of pragmatism because we can’t afford to let them play, but if we don’t damage their defence we’ll have many regrets at the end.
“[Leeds are] a well-rounded team with many good players. They are doing very well. They are able to create many chances early in the game and they can kill the game very early. It’s something we have to be aware of.”
Le Bris thinks lessons can be learned from Stadium of Light clash
Leeds have scored 13 goals in their last three league matches, seven of those coming against Cardiff City as Daniel Farke’s outfit recorded their heaviest Elland Road victory in over 50 years a fortnight ago.
Leeds stormed into a two-goal lead after 13 minutes when Cardiff came to town. They were 2-0 up against Coventry a few days later inside 26 minutes. And when Manor Solomon fired home Leeds’ third away to Watford last time out, there was still only 35 minutes on the clock.
Even in their previous encounter with Sunderland, Joel Piroe hit the net inside half-an-hour.
Le Bris is hoping to avoid a repeat of that, and also the sort of quick transitions from which Junior Firpo put Leeds 2-1 up at the Stadium of Light.
“It will be an exciting challenge, but it’s still [just] three points to play for,” Le Bris says. “For us, it’s a really good challenge to test our limits. I think we can [still] improve our level against the best opponents. It will be a very interesting challenge, for sure.
“We started well against Leeds at home. After that, we struggled to press and we had a long period. We changed our structure to manage the problem and I think we were good [after that].
“But then, because they have many vertical threats and they are very impressive when they have space to exploit, they were able to counter-attack and score the second goal.”
Receive a digest of our best Leeds content each week direct to your mailbox
