Regis Le Bris has given his fair assessment of Sunderland's victory, Anthony Patterson's goalkeeping, a brief injury update and Eliezer Mayenda.
FOUL ON PATTO?
"I don't know, it's difficult to judge. The culture in England is different. In France I think the referee would whistle. It wasn't the case here and we were not surprised."
NEEDS TO LEARN
"For me, what we can control is the way Patto manages the situation and he will have to learn from this experience."
IMPORTANT WIN
"It was an important win today. I thought we started well and probably in the first 20 minutes we were very good with a good rhythm and a good pace. We then didn’t manage the period after that properly but it was a good win in the end. We have to balance picking up points with improving performances because we still have 10 games to go. It’s a question of levels - if we don’t raise our level, it will be tough until the end. To get more points, we need to improve. It was good from the first minute today, which shows we can do it - now it’s about consistency."
ROBERTS INJURY
"We hope it is not too serious, but we will see on Sunday. Patrick [Roberts] is experienced and he felt tight, so we thought the safe thing was to change it. It was more of a precaution than a serious injury.”
SALIS INJURY
“Salis [Abdul Samed] is struggling with his calf so we will have to wait until after the international break to have him back in the team. We are disappointed for him and for the squad because we need depth and at the minute, it’s difficult to refresh in the way we have done with Wilson and Eli, for example. Dan and Jobe have to push more and I have to say that they are really impressive, playing every minute without a break and doing very, very well.”
RETURNING PLAYERS
“Alan did very well, he just found it difficult to maintain. You could feel his three months without playing at this level. It’s the same for Romaine and Tommy, they need time to reconnect with the level. But they were good.”
MAYENDA GREAT FORM
"Here at Sunderland we can't buy players at that level so we need to build them. He's doing very well. I've said it before, he's a good example for all the team. He was on the bench for a long period but kept working, kept trying to be involved with the team and kept trying to improve his levels. Now he's really impressive. He seems strong, confident, dominant and it's good. We need that on the pitch to dominate this last part of the season. If he can inspire others that's good. Hopefully we can build this level of confidence for other players."
ALWAYS IMPROVING
"He's improved in many areas because he got minutes and he's talented. He wants to work hard and improve. He's really connected out of possession, he's very good with his back to goal to keep the ball and when he can turn and dribble and push the ball he's really good. In the last part of the pitch he can improve again because if you are more efficient there you are more impactful."
