Sunderland were played off the park on their last visit to the CBS Arena, but Le Bris believes that was the result of his side being “really exhausted” at the time.
That was the afternoon when Le Bris decided he would have to rotate his squad once a top six finish had been secured, which has led to the Black Cats finishing the season in woeful form, with Saturday’s defeat to QPR their fifth on the bounce.
Coventry, on the other hand, beat Middlesbrough to secure a fifth place finish yesterday and, ahead of Sunderland’s visit to the CBS Arena for Friday’s semi-final first leg, have won seven of their last eight games on home turf.
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One of those was the emphatic victory over Sunderland, which Le Bris will obviously now closely study. But he insists the outcome won’t have any bearing on the coming play-off clash.
“It was a specific period,” said Sunderland’s head coach.
“In this game we were really exhausted and it was the starting point of this period.
“We felt it was really important to refresh the squad after 36, 37, 38 games, I don’t remember exactly.
“This period is over. Individual mistakes can obviously happen but it wasn’t so often this season and I am sure it won’t happen again.”
Despite Sunderland’s dreadful recent form – winless in six and scoring only one goal in that time – Le Bris says he won’t be making any drastic changes for the play-offs.
“No, we built strong foundations,” he said.
“Now the period was different but it’s more about reinforcing our strengths with small adjustments rather than change everything.
“This is our plan and I’m sure it’s our main strength.”
