Régis Le Bris explains squad rotation policy at Sunderland

The latest North East sport headlines, from Daniel Wales.

Transcript

00:00Ahead of Sunderland's play-off campaign in the Championship, Head Coach Regis Labrice

00:05has explained his policy of rotating his starting XI.

00:09This season, I think this group showed that they were able to react quickly after defeats.

00:17So I'm not too worried about that because they showed that they have many resources

00:25as a team, as a player to react when it's necessary.

00:30So it's more about injuries, freshness and the process we have to manage to be comfortable

00:40with previous injured players and without rushing one or two games before playing.

00:49I think it will be interesting like it was against Coventry, even if we lost.

00:55We made a full analysis and I think it will be useful for the next game if we play against

01:00Coventry or Bristol.

01:02So even if it will be totally different, because I think a championship game, league game is

01:09totally different from a play-off game.

01:12And finally, Middlesbrough head coach Michael Carrick was adamant that his side are not out

01:17of the play-off race in the Championship just yet, despite losing their most recent match

01:22away against Millwall.

01:24There's something we can do about it, you know, we're right in it now, so nothing's

01:29over.

01:30I think the important thing is feeling and learning it really and we've spoken about

01:36that as a group have drawn on the experiences.

01:38You know, we've had some really good experiences, done some really good things throughout the

01:42season in different ways.

01:44Sometimes we put games together and runs together, sometimes it's been within games and then

01:50it's the drop-off in certain ways.

01:54It actually wasn't a whole bad performance in the second half.

01:58They had a little spell after half-time and then they had a spell around the goal and other

02:02than that we were still alright, we were still decent enough and first half was the chance

02:08to make the difference really for us but we still had moments in second half and we still

02:14put them under pressure.

02:15So, let's take a look at it.

02:16Let's take a look at it.