Following on from their victory against Crystal Palace, Sunderland returned to the capital for the third away game in a row to face a West Ham side renewed with confidence following a last-minute winner
from Callum Wilson the week prior.
With Granit Xhaka a confirmed fitness doubt for at least the next fortnight, for the first time this season Sunderland had to adjust to life without their captain and it’s safe to say things didn’t go to plan. How did Le Bris try to provide a more expansive setup away from home and how did it all go wrong at the London Stadium?
Sunderland Line-Up
With rumours surfacing late on Friday evening that Xhaka had picked up a knock during last week’s game against Palace, suspicions were confirmed at 11:15am when it was revealed our Swiss captain had suffered some ankle damage and will be out for an extended period of rehab.
In the absence of Xhaka, Le Bris decided to go bold in his team selection and picked Eliezer Mayenda to come in as his replacement for this one. Opting for a more aggressive team selection and shape, Le Bris decided to utilise a 4-4-2 system similar to his spell in early 2025 with Sunderland in the Championship.
In Xhaka’s absence, the midfield three became a two as Noah Sadiki and Enzo Le Fée looked to control the middle whilst Trai Hume resumed his hybrid role in the right of midfield/right-back/central midfield depending on where he was needed most. Mayenda partnered Brian Brobbey up front and formed a far more attacking line-up than we’re used to witnessing away from home — a bold move by Le Bris.
Opposition Line-Up
Nuno Espírito Santo was at the helm this time around as Sunderland faced their second West Ham manager of the season, looking to make themselves the only side in the league to go three wins on the bounce following a last-minute Callum Wilson winner the week prior.
Nuno kept the same side with his newly formed January strike force of Pablo and Castellanos following their moves earlier in the window whilst Jared Bowen and Crysencio Summerville manned the wings for the Londoners.
Sticking with a traditional 4-2-3-1 shape, Nuno looks to be compact off the ball and utilises the direct running of his wingers paired with the physical presence of his forwards to hit teams on the counter whilst looking to avoid leaving gaps to be played through. Having conceded 44 league goals prior to this one, West Ham have had a notoriously leaky defence this season which has been somewhat helped by Nuno; however, their Achilles heel remains their ability to ship goals at home.
Starting with Purpose
Given Nuno’s style and approach mentioned above, Sunderland were handed an unusual amount of possession from the opening whistle and looked to assert themselves early. Noah Sadiki stung the gloves of Areola in the opening minutes with a half-volley; however, after that, Sunderland looked rather directionless without their talisman in midfield.
With a plethora of early misplaced passes, Sunderland found themselves exposed on the counter-attack numerous times in the opening half-hour and looked to be at the mercy of both the West Ham wingers every time they broke with the ball. Due to the shape of the opposition, both Sunderland full-backs were edging forward paired with an additional midfielder in Le Fée, leaving Sunderland effectively 3 v 3 on the break during concerted possession.
With West Ham demanding that Sunderland took the game to them, Le Bris was forced into adopting a 3-5-2 shape in possession leaving effectively both central defenders and Sadiki the only men behind the ball during build-up. Pair this with the lack of Xhaka to help dictate the play, especially with the midfielder averaging over 45 passes per game whilst completing the most line-breaking passes of any of the Sunderland team this season.
Watching the Game Slip Away
Summerville was able to open the scoring for the hosts with an emphatic header following a Jared Bowen breakaway which made a fool of Reinildo on the day. Both full-backs wouldn’t cover themselves in glory as initially Reinildo couldn’t handle the trickery of Bowen having been so reliable for us this season, whilst on the other side Nordi Mukiele — despite his towering size — allowed Summerville to run on his blindside and get the jump on the full-back.
Before the half-hour the game was all but over as a series of probing runs from Summerville resulted in Hume dangling a leg for just a second too long allowing Bowen to return the favour and slot home to see both wingers having scored and assisted for one another. Sunderland were unable to contain the barrage and couldn’t sustain an attack for long before Mateus Fernandes crushed the ball beyond Roefs and wrapped up the most disastrous half of football so far this season for the lads.
Shape or Personnel?
Whilst Sunderland made somewhat of an improvement in the second half, ultimately the game state meant that irrespective of performance, West Ham were far more passive in possession knowing the game was essentially a formality as the minutes ticked down. The real question here though is: was the poor showing down to personnel or tactics?
Whilst losing Xhaka is understandably a big blow due to his raw ability on the football pitch, arguably his biggest loss came in the form of his intangibles. As we saw when Dan Neil moved from his anchoring role in seasons past, without Xhaka orchestrating the game flow from in front of his defence, other players were required to force the ball through the lines and resulted in Hume having an uncomfortable afternoon in possession. With only 15/19 completed passes in the first half and a 0% duel success rate he was unfortunately hooked to change the shape of the side and perform some damage limitation.
Sunderland’s shape caused arguably more issues than the lack of our talisman captain and in some ways, I can’t fault Le Bris for attempting something more expansive. Prior to the weekend, Sunderland had only scored two away goals since December and fans were calling for a more aggressive and expansive approach to playing away from home.
With West Ham susceptible to conceding, it felt like a logical choice to experiment with and potentially alter Sunderland’s dismal attacking output. In reality however, Sunderland produced their second lowest first-half xG of the season away from home with only their game against Manchester City at the Etihad producing less. With only one shot on target and four attempts in total, the shape saw Mayenda often confused on where to position himself around Brobbey and a gaping hole between the midfield and attacking lines in build-up.
With Hume inverting on the right and Mundle unable to get any change out of Aaron Wan-Bissaka, having only 17 touches, no take-ons/dribbles and 4 dispossessions in the first half, things made for ugly viewing. Sunderland were forcing attacks through the middle and drilled balls into both Brian Brobbey and Mayenda didn’t stick or were wide of the mark on several occasions.
Whilst it’s a harsh learning curve for Le Bris having tried to catch the opposition unaware of his change in shape like he did away to Burnley and Sheffield United last season, the Premier League is a different beast. I assume we’ll see Le Bris revert to type against Burnley and utilise his regular system now Diarra looks fully fit.
Pleasant Cameos
Whilst it really was the epitome of a bad day at the office for Sunderland, positive signs can be taken from the second-half substitutes as the likes of Habib Diarra and Chemsdine Talbi returned to the fold whilst Dennis Cirkin and Luke O’Nien both put in respectable shifts in the second half.
Whilst Diarra will gain the plaudits for his marauding run that resulted in the assist, Chemsdine Talbi displayed his typical tidiness and ball retention with a 100% pass accuracy and a perfectly delivered cross for Wilson Isidor to rocket over the bar. With both players likely to start against Burnley we’re expecting to see a much more composed attacking display.
Thinking About the Bigger Picture
Now that the dust has settled, it’s easy to see why and how things went wrong against West Ham; however, we’ve got to remember where we are and how little Sunderland have suffered a heavy defeat this season. Sat on 33 points at this point in the season still remains beyond expectations and with an opportunity to all but confirm safety against Burnley, we’ve got to view the bigger picture.
Régis Le Bris has done a fantastic job at eking out the most he can from an attacking standpoint whilst remaining as defensively solid as Sunderland have this season so he’s earned more than enough trust from the Sunderland faithful. Let’s write this one off and with a week to recover, go again on Monday night.
