RLB has reflected on his first six months in charge of Sunderland AFC and also looked forward to the final home game of 2024...
CONNECTED WITH THE CLUB
"I have really enjoyed the connection with the people, the project, the players and people around the club. The six months is just a period and we have been very impressive. I have really enjoyed it and it’s not often in our job because our job is very unstable. When you can enjoy it you have to because it’s not often. If you can last, why not. We will see because football is unpredictable. At least if I am focused on my job and I tried my best, that’s the best thing.”
ALWAYS EVOLVING
“I had no real expectations. I knew a little bit about the club. But when you are in the building, with the team and you manage many situations, the reality is very different. The reality of now will be different again in two, three or five months, so it is always evolving. The club is massive, the expectations are huge here but we can feel the patience and how people like the club and football in general.”
SHARED AMBITION
“Yes, probably we can feel the synergy in the club now. We can feel we are sharing a whole project, not only the professional team, it’s a shared ambition, sometimes we can feel this alignment and we can feel this right now. We are still a young team and we can feel the process and we can feel good energy in the club.”
TEAM IDENTITY/CONSISTENCY
"Probably we are not in the same place with depth and experience but this is our model and identity and we have many strengths. We will have some difficult periods to manage and if we can keep consistency that’s key. It was the case that even though we struggled to score, the team managed our identity. They kept the connections, and that was even the case through the injuries and suspensions. The style of play was the same even though it was a completely different team. So it’s our dynamic and we have to believe that dynamic will be positive in the end.”
NORWICH NEXT
“We used this week to reinforce our foundations in many aspects of our game model. To say ‘we are very good here, and here and we need to keep going forward like that’ and others where we have to manage different options, such as set-pieces and throw-ins we can manage in a different way, for example. This is our main focus. We have the confidence and we have a shared future and this is my job to manage unpredictable situations. I am happy with the way they are playing now.”
