AFTER two weeks on the training pitches, Regis Le Bris was pleased with the way his Sunderland players tried to put his ideas into action in their pre-season openers at the weekend.

But the head coach believes he'll learn a lot more about his players from Friday's friendly against Nottingham Forest in Spain.

Le Bris has enjoyed getting to know his players and staff at the Academy of Light over the course of the last fortnight but said Saturday's double-header against South Shields and Gateshead was the "real start" of the summer for the Black Cats.

It was a first opportunity for the Frenchman to see his players in action and although the results were mixed - a 5-0 win at Shields followed by a 2-1 defeat at Gateshead - he saw some promising signs and believes his side will get better with time.

"After two weeks of technical and physical work, for me it was the real start of the season because we are here to play games," said Sunderland's boss.

"It was interesting, two different scenarios and teams. I felt the players tried to express the ideas.

"We want to build a strong unit and team with ideas in different phases in the game. We want to be a proactive team. For sure we have talented players but the ideas behind all this preparation is to be a team. I think we can build this team but we need some time and different experiences to achieve that goal."

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Sunderland headed to Spain on Monday, where Friday's match against Premier League side Forest is followed by a game against Segunda Divisón club CD Eldense on Sunday.

Le Bris said: "We need to improve. These two experiences will be very useful to understand where we are at the moment.

"For sure we always need better opponents to increase our level. I hope this will be interesting for that.

"We'll have more time to get to know each other (in Spain). We'll have time also to get deeper in the different tactical principles. I'm waiting for that moment to increase our level because we will play against two stronger teams."

Le Bris has settled well on Wearside.

"I feel good, I feel great," he says.

"The welcome has been fantastic. Obviously I'm still getting to know everyone at the training centre, the players and all the people who work here, but I feel good."