As Sunderland approach the opening weekend of a Premier League season for the first time in nearly a decade, it’s easy to get lost in the excitement and optimism of how we’ll fare against relegation. However, it must be said that the Premier League is an entirely different beast to the one we remember.
With the influx of money, continental talent and managerial diversity, the Premier League has essentially morphed into its own ‘Super League’ as the best players, coaching staff and managers all flock
to prove their worth at the pinnacle of British domestic football.
Although Sunderland departed from an already strong league in 2017, the introduction of Pep Guardiola —among others — has seen the league reach its highest levels of competitiveness since its inception, with nearly half of the league competing in European competition this season.
So why does this all matter to Sunderland?
Newly promoted sides often face a culture shock due to the shift in the way they’re required to play according to their opposition.
The general rule of thumb is that a team will often achieve promotion by playing a possession, chance and ‘goal dominant’ style of play, which marks them out as the biggest fish in their subsequent league. Therefore, when moving division, they swiftly become a smaller fish in a larger pond and have to adapt.
In some ways, the appointment of Régis Le Bris was the beginning of a shift in identity for Sunderland. The focus was placed on playing football more suited to counter the possession-based, ultra physical and extremely fast pace of the Championship, and how to best fight it out with the footballing elite in the event that we finally achieved promotion.
Le Bris sacrificed the possession dominance during his first season, instead opting for a counter attacking system with elements of a high press which was often difficult to implement in the Championship, with teams asking Sunderland to be the ones who enjoyed the lion’s share of the ball.
So, in taking a more in-depth look at Sunderland’s setup following the raft of summer signings, how do we expect to line-up during the 2025/2026 campaign as the true underdogs of the league?
The need to be efficient off the ball
Sunderland’s out-of-possession shape will very much look similar to the system Le Bris chose to adopt in the Championship last season, favouring his solid base of a 4-4-2 which offers a good level of overall defensive coverage but also flexibility to adjust shape or change completely due to the natural balance the system provides.
Last season, Chris Rigg often pushed up alongside the lone striker to form a pressing duo; however, this season it looks to be club record signing Habib Diarra who’s taken that mantle.
With Diarra boasting an incredible ability to press and harry for a full match, he’s been utilised during pre-season as the most advanced midfielder and will therefore will continue to press from the front in the Premier League.
Elsewhere, Sunderland have retained their ‘inverted winger’ approach and therefore Simon Adingra, Chemsdine Talbi and Patrick Roberts are both expected to drop deeper into a midfield four and protect their full backs when defending attacks.
From a defensive line standpoint, Sunderland will remain in a mid-block with a comfort in falling deeper into a low-block when under sustained pressure. Given that Dan Ballard and Jenson Seelt are more accomplished aerially than with their feet — paired with Robin Roefs’ ability to collect crosses — it looks like we’ll regularly drop into our own eighteen yard box when defending.
Similarly to how we operated against Coventry last season, funnelling wingers out wide to encourage overlaps or force crosses is one of Le Bris’ core principles during the defensive phase of play and the signing of a goalkeeper who tops the charts in cross collection metrics points to the fact he’ll continue with his ‘pushing the play wide’ philosophy moving forward.
Sunderland’s in-possession shape
Sunderland varied between two main formations under Le Bris, with a sprinkling of the classic 4-4-2 when required, and frequently switching between a 4-3-3 and a 4-2-3-1 shape depending on the opposition and game model throughout the season.
We would often deploy a 4-3-3 system when facing teams at home, utilising Dan Neil in the six position and two more advanced midfielders beyond him, running the channels and acting as the creative fulcrums in the half-spaces in midfield.
Jobe was often tasked with running the channels, whereas Rigg was given licence to roam in the half-spaces and link up play through the triangles which became the foundations of our build-up.
Away from home or in games during which we felt more defensive stability was required, Le Bris would opt for a more conservative 4-2-3-1 which saw one of the more advanced midfielders (normally Jobe) drop deeper alongside the defensive midfielder and then the third midfielder took up a more orthodox number ten position slightly ahead.
With a raft of personnel changes, we’ll have a look at the systems Sunderland can look to utilise in the Premier League.
4-3-3
Operating with a more traditional 4-3-3 will see Sunderland deploy their usual defensive setup, with an emphasis on Granit Xhaka performing a sweeping role as the deepest midfielder.
Operating as primarily a defensive anchor but secondarily as a midfield metronome whilst in possession, Xhaka has already demonstrated his leadership on the pitch. Acting as the vocal point of organisation for both the defence behind him but also his midfield trio, he’ll operate in the role occupied by Neil last season.
Either side of Xhaka, the ‘advanced eights’ look to be a combination of Noah Sadiki, Diarra, Enzo Le Fée and Rigg, with the opposition and game model dictating who comes into the side to form Sunderland’s three-man midfield.
Of the midfielders listed, Diarra has assumed the role on the right of the midfield three during pre-season and acting as the most attacking of the trio, with his goal against Augsburg and various drives into the channels providing evidence of his ‘box crashing’ ability.
Sadiki has assumed the left-sided role previously occupied by Jobe and looks to be interchangeable with Le Fée as the more ground-covering option. With Xhaka known for not being the most mobile, Sadiki has been covering large swathes of the pitch in possession, able to both support the attack in transition but also quick to retreat into vacant space to help smother opposition attacks.
In games during which we’re expected to be more on the front foot, I presume we’ll see Le Fée operate in this position due to his creative ability and confidence with the ball at his feet.
Although we were expected to break down low blocks on regular occasions last season, the games in which we can assert our dominance at home are going to provide Le Fée with an opportunity to start in midfield.
Sunderland’s full backs would also operate asymmetrically, with Trai Hume holding his shape and forming a back three and Dennis Cirkin often advancing on to overlap the inverted winger, with Reinildo Arthur Masuaku capable of providing an attacking threat down the left.
Whilst in a full transitional flow Sunderland essentially will form a 3-4-3 shape and look to push numbers into the final third quickly and through vertical progression — whether that be through long balls into the channels from Xhaka or through swift interchanges in midfield to exploit the space on the counter — our main source of threat will be through pace and power on the counter after absorbing pressure from the opposition.
4-2-3-1
The second system adopted by Le Bris during his first season in England was a slightly tweaked version of the aforementioned 4-3-3, which instead looked to provide more defensive solidity and featured in games such as Middlesbrough at home and away, and in games against the top three sides throughout the season.
During games in which we were expected to be reliant on resilient defending and quick counter attacks, Le Bris opted to deploy a more defensive approach and dropped into a double pivoted system by sacrificing the channel running of Jobe to be a zonal marker both in and out of possession.
With the current squad makeup, expect Sadiki to be deployed in this role, hunting the zonal space out of possession but also holding a disciplined shape whilst in possession. Sadiki would be far less expansive in his driving runs forward and leaving the channel running for the more traditional number ten.
In this shape, both wingers are also expected to drop deeper and perform defensive duties in assisting their full backs, meaning that more space is created in behind for them to attack quickly in transition. The additional workload on the wingers means regular substitutions will likely be required and therefore squad rotation out wide will be a prominent factor throughout the season.
When switching from a single pivot into a double pivot, the role of the sole number ten changes as Diarra becomes responsible for operating across both half-spaces on the pitch and becomes the link up player for the whole attacking unit in transition.
In this system, expect passes to become longer in distance as Le Bris is more restrictive in the number of triangles he can form across the pitch and favours positional solidarity over fluid passing moves.
Defensively, more emphasis will be placed on retaining a solid back four at all times. Therefore, we can expect Sunderland’s left back to be less aggressive in offering overlapping runs and remaining in favour of holding a rigid back four.
By essentially operating with a defensive unit of six, the four attacking players are expected to do much of the heavy lifting on the break as the core defensive unit remains in a compact shape even when in control of the ball.
5-3-2
Although somewhat of a rogue choice and not something we’ve seen Le Bris implement during his tenure, a system of three central defenders was one that he became accustomed to playing during his time with Lorient, and therefore given our underdog mentality for 2025/2026, he may deploy it as the season goes on.
Focusing on utilising a compact system of three central defenders and athletic wing backs to cover the space presented in the absence of natural wingers, a 5-3-2 system could be utilised in games away from home against the league’s best opposition in order to remain defensively solid.
With both Hume and Cirkin capable of playing as either wing backs or wide central defenders in a back three — paired with the introduction of two new versatile defenders — this could be a system we lean on when travelling to Anfield or the Etihad Stadium during the winter months.
By packing the defence and maintaining a compact shape in midfield, the two strikers are expected to run the channels and provide outlets to prevent pressure build up, and therefore the physical profiles of Marc Guiu, Wilson Isidor and Eliezer Mayenda all allow Sunderland to tinker with the system and adapt to games whereby they need to play more direct and pragmatically against the best sides in the league.
The midfield is likely to be made up of Xhaka, Sadiki and Diarra, and given the distance tracking data of both Sadiki and Diarra during 2024/2025, both midfielders are capable of putting in absurd ground coverage on the pitch and will need to do their best in order to aid attacks by arriving late to support attack after an initial long ball into the channel by Xhaka to relieve pressure.
Whilst this system isn’t going to produce football that’ll likely get fans off their seats, sometimes in a league as tough as this one it’s about grinding out results and although it’s not the sexy approach we’d all like, it’ll be ‘needs must’ in an attempt to beat the drop.
In conclusion
With the new season now well and truly around the corner, Le Bris has an enormous task on his hands to buck the trend of recent times, which has seen all nine of the most recently promoted clubs fall straight back down to the EFL.
Whilst we’ve spent a total sum eclipsing £150 million at the time of writing, this only just pulls us up to the level of the already established clubs and therefore expectations need to remain honest and level-headed as we attack this season.
Yes, there are going to be times where we go more than five games without picking up a single point; sometimes the football isn’t going to be the easiest on the eye and we might even be on the end of beating or two from some of the Premier League big boys.
However, Le Bris defied all the odds last season and managed to get us here through his ability to adapt and improvise with an essentially identical squad to the one that finished sixteenth the season before last, so let’s trust his approach and enjoy the ride no matter how it goes!
With the West Ham game seemingly miles away when the fixtures were first announced, we’re here and all the players who form part of the matchday squad have a part to play in our biggest challenge yet. Let’s keep the faith and back the Lads from game week one all the way up to game week thirty eight.
