Sunderland’s Wing Woes: Does Le Bris Need More Width?
And so… Fifty years on, as a never-was footballer, has-been hack and now avid Sunderland supporter all over again, one enduring concern is how Régis Le Bris goes about filling his right and left flanks.
Key points
- The Moroccan number seven proceeded to show the wide-working traits that are perhaps even more essential now than they were in Graeme Souness’ now-distant management days.
- Myself and my fellow scribblers (plus the Tyneside public, to be fair) had been banging on for some time about the lack of width in Souness’ Newcastle side.
- Many would say that Sunderland have become wingless wonders in their season and a quarter in the top flight.
Yet, between them, the right-back from Northern Ireland and the wing-back from Belgium more than shored up the right flank against Chelsea; they owned it.
Additional details
- They have time to come good – as does Malick Fofana, whose £38m worth has yet to become truly evident.
- It was classic attacking wing play, reminiscent of Dennis Tueart on the same flank at Roker Park.
- In short: Sunderland have a winger of World Cup pedigree, oven-ready for Premier League battle.
- Sunderland's Jocelin Ta Bi during a training session at Academy of Light, Sunderland.
- It crossed my mind, though I thought better of mentioning it, that I was once a trialist right winger at Middlesbrough – at the same time that Graeme Souness was club captain, in fact.
How this summary was made: extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting. It is drawn only from the reporting of the sources listed below — read the originals for full detail. How we summarize →
Advertisement
Every article behind this summary — 1 article from 1 outlet
Get stories like this in your inbox.
Subscribe — it's freeOne free email at 6am — your topics, deduplicated, five minutes. No account, no paywall.