‘Forget about everything else’: bottom on five points, should Sunderland’s head coach survive the defeat at Coventry?

Sunderland are bottom of the Premier League on five points, their own fans booed them off at Coventry, and the head coach says he has “no doubt” he still has the owner’s backing. I’m not sure he should. The mistakes get the blame, but I think the bigger problem is what happens around them.

Saturday’s 3-1 defeat at Coventry City was the sixth of the season and it left them 20th, with one league win from nine games. That win came against Fulham back on 30 August. Regis Le Bris, who took this club to seventh last season, now admits they are in a relegation battle.

Coventry were in the bottom three themselves before kick-off. This was the sort of game Sunderland had to win to show they had moved on after beating Brentford 3-2 in the League Cup on Wednesday, and instead Frank Lampard’s side climbed out of the drop zone at their expense.

The one comfort is the gap. Sunderland are only two points behind 17th-placed Manchester United, whose manager has troubles of his own after losing at Chelsea.

How much trouble is Regis Le Bris in?

Enough for the question to be asked to his face. Pressed after the game on whether he still had the support of owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus and director of football Florent Ghisolfi, he said: “I’ve no doubt.” He added: “So, 100 per cent I’m combative. I feel the unity of the club.”

He didn’t argue with the away end either. “It was totally understandable,” he said of the boos. No decision has been reported and one this week looks unlikely, but the run ahead is not a gentle one: Dinamo Zagreb in the Europa League on Thursday, Chelsea at home on Sunday, then the international break before a trip to Aston Villa.

Clubs like to make these calls in an international break. If Chelsea go badly, that fortnight will be a long one for him.

Is this really just individual mistakes?

That’s the line coming out of the dressing room, and on the face of it Coventry’s goals back it up. Trai Hume’s clearance struck a team-mate and fell for Tatsuhiro Sakamoto to open the scoring after 17 minutes. Taiwo Awoniyi took the ball off them in their own half for the second, and Jack Rudoni’s shot took a huge deflection for the third on 52 minutes.

Le Bris called it “two unforced errors” and went further: “This inconsistency is not acceptable at all. Consistency is the key word in this league. If you keep making individual mistakes, the opponent will kill you.” Granit Xhaka was blunter still. “Every weekend we are making the same mistakes and every weekend we are getting punished,” he said. “If we don’t do the basics, forget about everything else.”

Here’s my issue. When the same errors come back every weekend, you have to stop looking only at the men making them and start looking at the shapes they are being asked to play in. Sunderland struggle to build through the thirds with any regularity, and defenders who are short of options and spacing make bad decisions. Le Bris half-said it himself: “Maybe we’re a bit too exposed or not solid enough in different areas of the pitch.”

The other end tells the same story. Sunderland had 17 shots at Coventry and only two on target, and they have one league goal in their last four games, which was Enzo Le Fee’s penalty on Saturday. When a side’s wins depend on individual quality rather than a system that creates chances in volume, that’s a coaching question too.

Why was Talbi on the bench?

This is what baffles me most. Chemsdine Talbi played at number 10 against Brentford and scored, Malick Fofana got his first Sunderland goal and Jocelin Ta Bi made three assists. Three days later, Talbi started on the bench and £26m Fofana only came on with 15 minutes left.

Talbi only got on after the third goal, replacing Chris Rigg as Wilson Isidor came on for Nilson Angulo. He looked Sunderland’s busiest player straight away. Slid through one on one in the 59th minute, he beat Carl Rushworth but rolled it the wrong side of the post. Yes, that’s a chance he should score. But he was the one getting into those positions.

The crowd were chanting his name during the Brighton defeat as well, and I can’t see why a manager in this position wouldn’t use a player who keeps making things happen. Treat him as if he is staying, whatever happened with Saudi Arabia in the summer. Isidor and Brian Brobbey are only just back from injury, so that needs patience, but the wider point stands: Le Bris doesn’t look like a coach trying things.

The second half was better, to be fair. Le Fee scored after VAR gave a handball against Ethan Pinnock in the 66th minute, and Luke O’Nien was twice denied by last-ditch blocks. Le Bris said “we changed the momentum of the game”. But that was from 3-0 down, and it ended with Omar Alderete sent off for a second booking in the last seconds. How many times have Sunderland supporters been told the corner has been turned?

Doesn’t Europe buy him some time?

It’s his best argument, and he made it. “First year in Europe, you know you will have on average 10 less points,” Le Bris said. “It’s our reality.” Sunderland are unbeaten in Europe and into the League Cup quarter-finals, so this isn’t a club that has stopped functioning. And the summer didn’t help him, with no specialist right winger arriving, a gap they could still try to fix in January.

But I can’t accept it as a complete explanation. The numbers underneath were already a worry during last season’s run to seventh, and on Saturday Sunderland lost to a side who were in the bottom three themselves. It’s also hard to blame a stretched squad when the men who played so well on Wednesday weren’t trusted to start on Saturday.

He is also without Dan Ballard and Romaine Mundle, which is a real blow, but no squad at this level gets through a season untouched.

Should Sunderland sack Regis Le Bris?

I think it’s time, and I don’t say that lightly. He has earned a lot of credit on Wearside, and promotion followed by seventh is a record nobody should forget. Two points from 17th means nothing is lost yet, which is exactly why this can’t drift.

But the patterns of play, the structure in build-up and the way he is using his squad aren’t improving, and I don’t see what changes them from here. “We won’t give up,” he says, and I believe him. But unless Dinamo Zagreb and Chelsea show something very different, Louis-Dreyfus should use the international break to make the change while there is still a season to save.