Sunderland maintained their unbeaten home record with a hard-fought draw against a struggling Aston Villa following an early red card on Sunday, demonstrating a real show of strength & unity to come back from a goal down in the second half.
With Reinildo’s early dismissal, how did Regis Le Bris show his managerial prowess and make some adjustments on the fly to leave Unai Emery red in the face come the full-time whistle? We’ll take a look at some of the standout data from the weekend’s game.
Sunderland
Line-Up
With late news of a training injury sustained by record signing Habib Diarra during Friday’s training session, eyebrows were raised when Chris Rigg came in to replace Diarra for his first Premier League start, elsewhere Enzo Le Fée’s small niggle that kept him out of the squad against Crystal Palace saw him return to the starting XI in place of Simon Adingra who dropped to the bench.
With Diarra & Rigg swapping like for like in midfield, Sunderland took their usual 4-3-3 shape with Le Fée tucking inside to combat the box midfield of Aston Villa. Whilst out of possession, the usual 4-4-2 shape was deployed with Rigg & Isidor pressing zonally & the rest of the team going man for man. Given the desire to place Emi Martinez under pressure, Sunderland jumped from goal kicks and left Morgan Rogers spare, knowing the only way to bypass the press was to go long in search of the spare man, which we’ll visit again later.
Opposition Line-Up
Unai Emery made two changes to the side that drew 0-0 with Everton the week prior, mainly due to a combination of players returning from injury paired with a midweek game either side of the trip to the Stadium of Light. Evann Guessand & Boubacar Kamara both returned, with the injured Youri Tielemans & Jean Bogarde dropping out of the midfield.
Under Emery, Aston Villa operate in the same system they have done for several years now by playing a very fluid 4-2-3-1 system which involves a structured back six but a very dynamic and rotational front four, all capable of playing across the front line at any one time.
Specialising in a methodical build-up which revolves around springing overloads in the middle sectors of the pitch through a box midfield, essentially one touch passing triangles followed by a ball carry by one of the attacking midfielders to break lines and change the tempo at a moment’s notice.
Squaring Up to Villa’s Box
Unai Emery has a very distinct playing style which has pushed his Aston Villa side from the bottom quarter of the table up to European regulars over the last few years and therefore Le Bris had his work cut out developing a plan to combat this during the week.
By utilising a hybrid press which saw Sunderland’s front two of Chris Rigg & Wilson Isidor pressing zonally and jumping onto the Villa back four & keeper following the start of build-up, Villa were forced to find their spare man in Morgan Rogers as the remaining eight outfielders shifted to a man-to-man press against Villa’s attacking unit. By funnelling their build-up through Rogers, who has had been low on confidence during 25/26 they allowed him to turn & assess his options before ultimately having to drop the ball back off and start again.
Within the first half hour it was clear that Sunderland were able to smother all creativity and prevent the away side from stringing together any real moments of worry other than a single Guessand attempt which was the result of a set piece routine, Villa ended the half with only three attempts on goal and an open play xG of 0.09 despite the dismissal on the half hour mark.
Le Bris showing his Worth
Despite doing all the work during the week to foil Emery’s gameplan, the dismissal of Reinildo Mandava at the half hour mark changed the whole complexion of the game. From my position in the West Stand there was no complaints and with the inclusion of VAR it was more a case of when Reinildo was going to receive his punishment not if. Whilst I’ll not comment too negatively as Matty Cash did what was required to provoke the aggro, Reinildo will be disappointed in himself and knows he owes his teammates a big apology for someone of his experience level.
With Sunderland down to 10, Le Bris needed to quickly shuffle his deck and re-organise his side given so much of Sunderland’s natural width on the left side relied on the work of his left-back. Rigg was unfortunately the sacrificial lamb on his first start however the teenager did impress during his cameo with 1/1 dribbles & tackles whilst also winning 67% of his duels in the opening half hour.
Chemsdine Talbi quickly shifted to Left Wingback, Dan Ballard was brought on in defence and Le Fée shuffled into the middle in order to create a rigid 5-3-1 system which relied on quick transitions from Talbi to shift into a 4-3-2 system whenever we looked to counter.
Without the extra body in midfield, Sunderland’s mid-block understandably turned into a low-block and the hybrid press was replaced by a standard man to man until Isidor had ran himself into the ground chasing the additional defender around. Dan Ballard was assigned tracking duties of Morgan Rogers and prevented the midfielder from receiving the ball into feet for large swathes of the second half.
Defending like Warriors
In what’s quietly becoming one of the best bits of business Sunderland have done this summer, Nordi Mukiele was once again an absolute titan at the back during this game and is even now lending himself to our attacking output due to the potency of his long throws which has resulted in him leading the league for chances created by a central defender through five games.
Mukiele will need some extra pockets having previously held Mateta last week, Ollie Watkins was next on the defenders agenda and once again he showed extreme poise. With 4/6 ground duels won, 3/4 aerial duels won, an outrageous 12 clearances and 67% of his tackles won including one as the last man Mukiele was outstanding again. Special mention goes to his simply absurd pass with the outside of his right boot in mid-air as he tee’d up his defensive partner Alderete with the Paraguayan’s header crashing off the crossbar during the second half.
Alongside Mukiele, both Omar Alderete & Trai Hume also had outstanding games. Alderete was unlucky not to find himself on the scoresheet after crashing the crossbar but finished the game with two interceptions, three recoveries and a 60% ground duel win rate. Hume looked as comfortable as ever against top tier attackers, finishing this one with 5/6 ground duels won (83%) and was 100% with his tackle success rate of 3/3 including a brilliant stab away from Jadon Sancho and a slightly dubious reducer on Morgan Rogers which left the England International firmly in a heap.
Midfield Shift
It would be rude not to highlight the sheer drive & desire of our midfield trio to maintain shape, discipline & organisation for the duration of the second half. Of course, Xhaka remains an instrumental cog in the machine when it comes to his organisation however the tenacity of Le Fée and Noah Sadiki in midfield to pick up the slack and press Aston Villa for long spells is just exemplary. Sadiki & Le Fée combined for 7/11 duel wins and the defensive actions map below just showcases how active both were throughout the game.
I could discuss all of the non-fancy things Noah Sadiki does for hours on end however I’ll leave that for another day! Just know here at Roker Report we’re all massive fans of Sadiki and can’t wait to see how he develops over the course of the season to more than just a fans favourite but potentially a league-known one as well.
Isidor Stepping Up
When Wilson Isidor signed for Sunderland last summer, I wrote a piece for the site discussing how he had the attributes of a Premier League striker who unfortunately wasn’t able to showcase as much as we’d like due to the opposition in the EFL. Fast forward to 25/26 and we’re reaping the rewards of signing an intelligent, pacey & instinctive finisher to complement the raft of hard workers behind him.
Whilst his finish was the sign of a man with confidence and helped do wonders for Sunderland’s open play xG numbers this season, I wanted to highlight the importance of his hold-up play against two top central defenders in Mings & Konsa. Despite only receiving 17 touches throughout the game, Isidor still managed a whopping six shots, won 2/5 of his aerial duels and completed his only dribble of the game which by definition is making the most of the chances you get.
With 1/3 of his touches being first time strikes, Isidor ranks 3rd in the league for Shots per 90′ at 5.00 and only second behind Erling Haaland for Goals per 90′ at 1.15. Pair this with his 38.5% shot accuracy and it once again showcases that Isidor takes every opportunity with both hands.
Discipline & Togetherness
With two tough away games coming up against Nottingham Forest & Manchester United, it was imperative that Sunderland kept the feel good factor going into a three week hiatus before the lads return to play Wolverhampton Wanderers at the Stadium of Light at the end of next month. With Diarra the only fresh injury concern and further minutes for Geertruida, Chris Rigg & Dan Neil in the tank, Le Bris should have a pretty much full complement of players to select in the wake of Reinildo’s suspension.
Looking towards that magic 11 points from 10 games number, Sunderland could potentially return home only needing a point to achieve the milestone, hopefully the lads rest & recover ready to go again at the City Ground on Saturday.
