On July 1 2024, a relative unknown called Régis Le Bris arrived at the club.
In fifteen months, he’s taken Sunderland from sixteenth in the Championship to fourth in the Premier League — and whilst it’s true that the club and recruitment team have backed him with the tools to do the job, he deserves enormous credit.
On arrival — possibly by choice but more likely due to the club’s long-term stability model — Le Bris worked with the existing coaching team of Mike Dodds, Michael Proctor and Alessandro
Barcherini. Proctor signed as a player in 1997 and returned as an academy coach in 2018. Apparently Dodds was a Speakman pick and arrived in 2021, followed by goalkeeping coach Barcherini in August 2022.
With little knowledge of the Championship or the existing playing staff, Le Bris must’ve relied heavily on the existing coaches in his first few months.
Of course, he would’ve set the standards, the system of play and decided which players fitted his style and work ethic, but there’s no way he could’ve turned the club around alone and I’d suggest that the coaching staff who’ve been in place in mid-2024 haven’t been given the credit they deserve.
Our head coach is, by all accounts, a workaholic and meticulous about detail.
There’s no doubt he’s in charge. He established the basic way we play (don’t worry too much about possession, defend, turnover and breakaway) and we’ve played the same way ever since. His job is top level — to get the players to understand and buy into the system and to set expectations. Like any head coach, he then must rely on his staff to do the detailed work.
I’m not a coach, but I think I can take an educated guess at the process: the head coach takes a look at a player and decides he has the basics in place, the right work ethic and the potential to play a particular role in the system.
He then gets the player in for a chat, builds his ego a little, tells him he sees a place for him and then tells him to get a place in the team he needs to do X, Y and Z. An assistant coach is then tasked with working with that player day in day out with the head coach dipping in now and again with input and encouragement.
Let’s take Eliezer Mayenda as an example.
I’m guessing Le Bris saw something in his play, his attitude and his fit with his system. He then delegated the day-to-day work to a coach (Proctor is my guess), and when the season starts, Mayenda was a revelation. Who deserves credit for that? Mayenda himself, obviously, but also Le Bris and his assistant.
Another example is Wilson Isidor.
Understandably, it took him a little time to adapt but he soon established himself and made a significant contribution in the run to the Premier League. However, one thing he couldn’t do was head the ball — either when challenging or when in on goal.
I can think of at least two instances in home games in the Championship when he missed a sitter of a header but this season, he’s been noticeably better. Isidor deserves credit for that, but so does whichever coach has worked with him to improve. Again, it might’ve been Proctor or maybe one of the new coaches for this season (more on them below).
Returning to Dodds, my view is that Le Bris leaned heavily on him in the early part of the Championship season and at least part of the late-season dip was due to his departure. The evidence to date shows Dodds isn’t a manager, but he deserves credit for his part in the club’s success.
Assessing Barcherini’s contribution is more difficult. He was moved to a new role when Dodds left, but during his time with Patterson, did he visibly make him a better goalkeeper? I don’t think so. Is Barcherini up to his new role as a defensive coach? As the defence has been rock solid this season, probably.
Pedro Ribeiro was appointed as assistant head coach in October 2024, but I’m not going to waste much time on him. I know the official line was that he left to pursue managerial opportunities but in my view, he never quite fitted in. The official line was a bit like a politician resigning — not because of the latest scandal, but because he/she has decided to spend more time with the family.
So, on to this season and a raft of new coaches…
Luciano Vulcano — Assistant head coach
Isidre Ramón Madir — Opposition analysis
Neil Cutler — Goalkeeping coach
James Brayne — Set piece coach
Shad Forsythe — Performance manager
Forsythe arrived a little later than the rest and it’s probably unfair to comment on his contribution. We’ve scored lots of late goals this season, but we were already going “til the end”.
Tactically, we’ve been brilliant this season and of the credit goes to Le Bris, but how much did the input of a highly experienced coach like Vulcano and/or the opposition analysis of Isidre Ramón Madir have on results?
The long throws of Nordi Mukiele have caused chaos in opposition defences this season. Yes, you need someone to throw the ball in long, fast and flat, but there’s a lot more to it than that. Someone has to do the hard work with the players hour by hour. You block the goalkeeper, you make a run here, and when he does, you get your head on the ball here.
Could that person be the new set plays coach, James Brayne? The defence has been awesome this season. Of course that’s helped by the quality of the players, but how much is down to set play work?
As mentioned above, when discussing Barcherini, the goalkeeping coach is more difficult to judge. There follows an assessment based on very little evidence.
I tend to be in my seat early enough to watch the goalkeepers warm up. Last season, it seemed to be very much about the group, but this season it’s different. Roefs tends to come out much later than the other goalkeepers, and when he does, Cutler’s view seems to be “Here’s the main man, so the rest of you just go and play among yourselves”. You might suggest — given it’s a pre-match warm-up — that’s justified, but I’m not so sure.
Given his limited experience in first team football, Roefs’ performances have been unbelievable this season.
If you were to take a hyper-critical view, you might point out he’s been a little weak at his near post, and he tends to dive with fists closed rather than open hands, which is unusual. The measure for Cutler is what he improves in the second half of the season, and I accept there may be very little to improve
So, among all the entirely justified hype about Le Bris, perhaps we should all spare a little thought for the work the coaches, the medical team, the analysts and others put in on a daily basis.
