"Broken" - Sunderland boss Regis Le Bris delivers concerning message after Coventry City defeat | OneFootball

The Black Cats boss has issued a worrying message after his team's 3-0 defeat to the Sky Blues.

Sunderland manager Regis Le Bris has admitted that his team looked "exhausted" as Coventry City handed the Black Cats a 3-0 defeat on Saturday.

That result now means that Le Bris' boys head into the international break winless in their last two Championship games, as the weekend's loss to the Sky Blues came off the back of a 1-1 draw with Preston North End.

Having effectively seen their automatic promotion chances vanish, Sunderland's focus now shifts towards cementing themselves in the play-offs with a good run of form before they play for a place in the Premier League.

Speaking post-match via The Sunderland Echo, Le Bris has confessed that he's finding it challenging to explain his sides' inconsistent performances and results in recent weeks.

He said: "It wasn't the best version of Sunderland this afternoon. To be fair, Coventry were good. They played good football, they were incisive and intense. We were not able to maintain the level to defend properly.

"Even if our shape was OK, our intensity in duels and second balls were far from the level expected. With the ball we were sloppy, we couldn't keep it against their pressure. It was a bad game.

“It's hard at the moment to find just one reason to explain the behaviour of the team, so I will have to analyse this. I think after the Leeds game our dynamic was broken a little bit, probably our way of thinking about automatic promotion.

"We played well but didn't get any points. After the Hull game we had a good reaction with two wins and a draw, but today we looked exhausted on the pitch. We didn't look like we had the energy to be competitive."

Le Bris and Sunderland must address defensive issues before play-offs begin

Saturday's defeat to Coventry marked Sunderland's sixth successive game in which they have failed to keep a clean sheet.

On the whole, the Black Cats' defence has been strong so far this season. Their 1.0 goals conceded per game is the fifth-lowest in the Championship after 38 games, whilst their 14 clean sheets rank as the fourth highest in the second tier - per FotMob.

As such, their recent lapse in defensive security will be of growing concern to Le Bris, and it's something the Sunderland boss and his coaching staff will need to arrest in the final eight games of the campaign in order to enter the play-offs with a leading chance of winning Premier League football.