Le Bris on how he will combat playing in Europe and the Premier League | OneFootball

Regis Le Bris revealed that he is going to field a strong side in Sunderland’s first European match for 53 years.

After a strong season, Sunderland qualified for the Europa League and are set to face AZ Alkmaar in their opening match of the tournament.

Sunderland have not had the challenge of playing European football and Premier League football in their history. Regis Le Bris was asked how he aims to combat the rising number of fixtures this season.

“Because it’s still early in the season, and the players are fresh, they can play,” said Le Bris. “They want to play because I think they want to play in this competition.

“They want to be involved in something new for the club. We hope the competition remains really interesting for us, and we will need more than 11 players to be competitive in both competitions [Europa League and Premier League].

“But for now, it’s possible for us to go strong.  I think we want to go strong in both competitions; that’s important for our fans and for the club as well.”

Sunderland may now be in Europe, but it was only five years ago that they were playing in League One. Trai Hume and Luke O’Nien were both part of the side that played in England’s third tier.

“It shows they are really well connected with the identity of club,” Le Bris explained. We are talking about the key values and key pillars, but also behaviours. You want to get better. You can start maybe from a lower level, but if you get better, you want to improve every day, you can reach something impressive – like this.”