Régis Le Bris on Sunderland's training camp and staff update

Sunderland have spent a week in Alicante on the Spanish coast with two games at the Pinatar Arena against Nottingham Forest, a 1-1 draw on Friday, and Eldense on Sunday evening. Jack Clarke scored from the penalty spot against Nottingham Forest before goals from Tom Watson and a spectacular strike from Luis Hemir against the Spanish side on Sunday brought an end to a successful warm weather training camp.

Sunderland will now return to the North East before friendlies with Blackpool, Bradford City and Olympique Marseille ahead of the new season with Le Bris encouraged by the work done with his players over the course of the last week.

Here is every word from Le Bris on Sunderland's training camp in Spain, the 2-1 win over Eldense and what comes next:

• Culture improving under Régis Le Bris
• Time to improve on ideas
• Alan Browne's impact
• Striker options
• Coaching staff

Régis, a 2-1 win to end the pre-season schedule in Spain, what were your observations of the game?

It’s a friendly game, we are in the beginning of the season so this game was unpredictable because the culture of the team is still building. We had some good moments, but we also struggled because we need to improve our relationships. It will help us to build over the next weeks.

This must have been a useful trip for you to bond with the squad of players?

We’ve had many opportunities to share our ideas and to train it with many training sessions. For the first game against Nottingham, it was interesting and the second because the team was different, maybe, it was more difficult. But at the end of this camp I am happy, because we worked well and now we have two weeks to go further with our ideas.

What have your observations been of the players so far?

They’ve trained well – that’s the first idea, to push themselves to improve their physical level. Then the game model and the tactical ideas we want to build, we have raised many steps during this camp. It’s not enough because we know the Championship is tough and we have three weeks to build the next layers, so I hope we will continue during the weeks we have left. It was a good week.

Hemir's goal was quite the finish, wasn't it?

His shot is impressive, we see it during every training session and every technical exercise. Of course, it is different to do it during the training sessions and in the game. Now he has this potential and he has to improve to implement it during competitive games like in the Championship.

READ MORE: Eldense 1-2 Sunderland: Hemir's thunderbolt, defensive duo impress and Alan Browne's first start

Are you happy with your striker options?

It's hard to say at the moment because every player needs to find their references within the team. At the moment, they give their best and they want to learn. And we will see during the next week if it is possible to have that idea through the whole season.

It was Alan Browne's first outing, what have you made of him so far?

This experience will be very useful for us. Today was his first 45 minutes with us, he is two weeks behind the whole group so he still needs to find his best physical condition and develop his understanding of the game model. I think in the next few weeks you will see that difference

What have you made of the two games out in Alicante?

I think we had two very different opponents. Our first game was easier for that shared culture because the players know each other, this is not the same in the second game. But we have trained well in this camp, the physical part was very interesting and for our game model and ideas that we want to share it was interesting. Now, we want to do it on the pitch and this is the main thing moving forward.

Régis Le Bris offered his reaction to Sunderland's pre-season camp in Spain after a 2-1 win over CD Eldense (Image: Sunderland AFC)

Are you happy with where the team are at in terms of getting to grips with your philosophy?

The ideas are there, and now we need to adjust these with each opposition to respect them. For example, we tried today to be strong on man-for-man marking when the goalkeeper had the ball - sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't work. With these experiences, we learn what is needed to solve these problems. With one, two, three games more - it's going to be a lot better.

Are there any areas you'd like to see an improvement?

It's still possible to improve the team but I'm a head coach who believes in development so I'm going to try and develop these players and then if we have an opportunity to develop the team - we'll see. Our main idea is to work with these players right now.

Pierre Ekwah, Nectarios Triantis and Abdoullah Ba, how far away are they?

It won't be too long for any of those three guys. I think they will be available next week.

I like a young player with talent, and of course with a history with Sunderland. I think that he [Ekwah] has a good mentality, he wants to improve and to learn and to play for the team. These are good things for the future.

Is there any update adding to your coaching staff? 

There's no update at the moment, we're still working on it. I think we'll see next week or maybe a little bit later. 

The hard work will continue when we return to England?

Of course, we have two games at the end of next week so it’s another opportunity to improve our team.