But nor is it the norm for a side aiming to win promotion to the Premier League in the next few weeks to finish the regular campaign with five straight defeats and a string of grim performances. The concern of Sunderland supporters is understandable.
Especially now it has been confirmed that it will be Coventry who the Black Cats will face in the play-offs. It was the hammering at the CBS Arena in March that made Le Bris decide he must rotate his “exhausted” squad in the run-in but Sunderland have won just two of eight games since and scored just three goals in that time.
They’ve hit the net just once in their last six outings and rarely threatened against QPR, who conceded five to Burnley just seven days earlier.
Sunderland were top and Coventry 17th when the sides met at the Stadium of Light back in November but six months on it’s a surprise, on recent form, that the bookmakers have priced up the Black Cats to win over two legs.
Le Bris has done an outstanding job this season but now faces the biggest challenge of the campaign so far. He has five days to somehow draw a line under the underwhelming recent displays and find the switch to flick his side back into life.
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He called for perspective after Saturday’s latest loss, reminding fans of how far Sunderland have come over the course of the last 12 months, but admitted he might also have to stress that to his players at the Academy of Light this week.
“Yes probably because it’s human after five defeats to think now you are weak, but it’s not the reality,” he said.
“The game can change with one decision. Football is like that, you are always on the edge. We can’t say QPR were miles better than us today. On another day we could have won.
“It was just a question of small details.
“Even in this situation it’s better to think we have to react and push more and reinforce our togetherness. These are our pillars and if we are strong on these foundations it will all be good at the end.”
What has he seen to make him think Sunderland can now suddenly turn it back on?
“For me, I have in my head the games we played against Leeds, Sheffield United and Burnley,” he said.
“These games were play-off games and we always played well in these situations.
“If it was two, three, four months before, we’ll be ready to do it again, I have no doubt about this.”
Nobody is questioning the fact that Sunderland have shown this season they can live with the best, but the most recent of those three games Le Bris pointed to was three months ago.
The rotation was an understandable excuse for disappointing displays but Le Bris reverted to his full strength side for the games against Oxford and QPR and the Black Cats were arguably even worse. QPR’s winner came after just five minutes when Nicolas Madsen strolled into the penalty area unmarked and picked his spot. An equaliser never looked likely.
Have Sunderland simply run out of steam and ideas? Their only goal in the last six games was Eliezer Mayenda’s solo work of art at Bristol City. Creating chances has been a struggle and was again a problem against QPR, who will have left Wearside thinking they were good value for their three points.
Mayenda got the nod against Rangers but failed to grasp his opportunity and the starting striker spot for the first leg is one of only two positions seemingly up for grabs ahead of the first leg.
The other is at centre-half, where the return of Dan Ballard gives Le Bris an interesting decision to make. It was perhaps revealing that Le Bris went out of his way in his press conference this week to tell of just how impressed he’s been with Ballard on the training pitches.
Le Bris felt Sunderland’s trip to Portugal energised his players but Saturday’s display didn’t back that up.
The hope now is that jeopardy brings the best out of the Black Cats again. They’ve been victims of their own excellence early in the season in securing a top six place with weeks to spare and the pressure has been off since in terms of results and standings.
But the way the season has ended has only served to increase the pressure on Le Bris and his players in the play-offs and Sunderland must now deliver again.
“I still believe we have the quality and now we have a new chapter to open,” he said.
The last time Sunderland beat Coventry was in 2007, when Dwight Yorke and Carlos Edwards were on the scoresheet. What has happened in years gone by against the Sky Blues shouldn’t matter in the play-off ties ahead. Will Sunderland’s displays and results in recent weeks matter? We’ll soon find out.
