#onthewhistle as perfect start continues
Phil is back to take Sunderland fans' questions after the 3-1 win over Portsmouth at Fratton Park
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00:00Hello and welcome to the latest edition of On The Whistle. Just made it today, I'm afraid
00:19so you'll have to put up with me for 10 minutes or so but I reckon you'll probably be alright
00:23with that. I reckon you'll manage because Sunderland's start of the season just continues
00:26to get better and better. 4-4, unfortunately the clean sheet record is gone, Luke 0-9 scored
00:32a late home goal which he was absolutely devastated about but I don't think we can hold that against
00:36him because there was another excellent performance in Luke 0-9, completely dominated his physical
00:40battle with Christian Sadie up front for Portsmouth and actually I thought that was the platform
00:44for the win really, Portsmouth were pretty toothless although Sunderland stood up to
00:49the physical challenge really well. The first half wasn't a great game, there wasn't a huge
00:53amount of quality from either side but I did think Sunderland had the better moments
00:57and although they get really fortunate with a comical home goal where Miander has a shot
01:01saved, the defender then goes to clear it and just basically rifles it off his team-mate
01:04and bounces it over the line. It was the best move of the first half so I think Sunderland
01:08just about deserved their lead, albeit they were a little bit fortunate and then the second
01:12half really summed up what the identity of this team is under Le Bris, it's not necessarily
01:17about dominating possession, it's not necessarily about controlling the game with the ball,
01:22it's about winning duels, it's about being in a good defensive shape and counter-attacking
01:26at pace. The second and third goals in their own ways are just an absolute joy, the second
01:31one Riggs spins away, finds Roberts, little cross, Miander has a shot which Brown nicks
01:36on the line. I'm going to give him credit, he couldn't have been sure that that wasn't
01:39going to get cleared so he had to steal it but Miander will be disappointed. And then
01:43the third goal, an absolute crunch in 50-50 from Riggs which he wins, Miander carries
01:48the ball, tees up Mundell who thumps home and there you go, three points. Really, really
01:52exciting times, I think we all know that it's going to be really hard for Sunderland to
01:55sustain a top two push over the course of the season because of the quality of the other
01:59teams and the budgets that they've got but you have to say that they've deserved all
02:03of their results so far, I thought they thoroughly deserved to win again and again Anthony Paterson
02:07has not really had anything to do and that is such a strong foundation, if your goalkeeper
02:10has not really been called into action then I just think that is such a strong platform
02:15from which you can then go on and show your attacking quality so really impressed with
02:19what they're doing at the moment, like I say, Lebris seems to have, Sunderland went terrible
02:23defensively last year, they had a decent record, Lebris has managed to keep that but he's managed
02:28to add some attacking stuff to this team and that's such a threat on the break and it's
02:31a joy to watch. Obviously we don't know how they'll respond when they have to chase again,
02:35so far they've been able to manage it and counter attack with a goal advantage or maybe
02:38a couple of goals advantage which is a huge benefit but you can't be anything but positive
02:42about this team at the moment, what a joy to watch them. I'm going to get straight into
02:45your questions because I've got to go and catch a train so let's go through some of
02:49them. Cam Tastrofink says what's been the most surprising part of this brilliant start?
02:56Meander's emergence question mark. Yeah I have to agree with that, I mean I thought
03:00that, I think anyone who watches The On The Whistles, I said through pre-season that I
03:04thought you could see someone like Meander, I think you could see he'd taken a big step
03:07forward, he clearly is a really intelligent player and he understands what Lebris wants
03:11from him in terms of the pressing, that ultimately is the reason why he's in the team, that's
03:15why Lebris has put so much faith in him. But I think you could see as well that his movement
03:19was really good and he had something about him. I thought today was his best performance
03:22in the summer and shared by a country distance, he didn't get the goal, as I say Brown took
03:26that one which he probably had to do off the line. But I thought his all-round contribution,
03:29his link-up play, you know we have to put it into context as always, we talked about
03:33this last week with all the players that were missing, you know Portsmouth were missing
03:36most of their centre-halves, they were playing a right-back and centre-back and you could
03:39tell that there wasn't a huge amount of familiarity in their partnerships and they were uncertain
03:44I think when those balls were played through the middle. But I thought Meander was a constant
03:47thorn in their side and I think he has been one of the fans of the season so far really,
03:53you know we've talked about the strikers, and correctly so because we know that Meander
03:56is going to struggle to do 46 games physically, that's so demanding. But he's in this team
04:00on merit at the moment and I'm just really impressed with what he's done and so I would
04:05probably put that as the most surprising aspect of what we've seen so far this season.
04:09I think probably the other one would be, I probably didn't think La Brice would be
04:15able to build this kind of style so quickly. I think it is a bit different to what we saw
04:19under Mowbray for example in that some of them are happy to have 40-45% possession but
04:23that doesn't mean that they're not hurting teams, it's that they're just doing things
04:26a different way and I'm surprised at how solid they are defensively, how good the structure
04:31is, I think that's been the most pleasant surprise so far so hopefully that answers
04:34that question. A couple of you actually asked about Bennett, Adil Al-Shish and Abdullah
04:41Barhu, it was a really strange one today because it was a really, really young bench. Obviously
04:45the four players signed last night weren't able to come into the squad, which then meant
04:49you had a bit of an in-between bench where there's loads of young players on it, Timo
04:53Tutierov, Ben Crompton, Tommy Watson obviously has been on the bench before, Harrison Jones
04:58as well and there was a couple of other academy players travelled. I actually asked La Brice
05:01about this after the game so I can give you a little bit of insight on that. Basically
05:04what happened here was so last week it was just selection, so Al-Shish and Barhu was
05:08quite strong, there was a message to them that they had to work hard and prove they
05:11deserved a place in the squad. This week you made quite clear that basically they hadn't
05:15travelled with the team yesterday because it was possible that they were going to leave
05:18the club so they basically took the decision just to travel with the players who they knew
05:21would be available and to leave those players who could leave at home so they were in the
05:25right place and could move quickly if they needed to. Now that obviously tells us they've
05:29got a lot of work to do because the fact that they were potentially going to leave
05:31the club tells us where they are in the pecking order so I think that there's a huge amount
05:35of work for them to do over the next few weeks and clearly the players in the squad today
05:39are ahead of them. But yeah, just to say that while last week was purely a selection thing,
05:45especially with Al-Shish and Barhu, this week was a little bit more complex than that and
05:49it was partially because there was a chance that they might get a move and it was deemed
05:52best just to leave them at home.
05:54I don't think you should read too much into this. I think Isidore has been signed primarily
06:05as a striker. He's definitely coming here to play primarily as a striker. I might be
06:09wrong but I honestly think the reason why he came on at left wing was because La Bresa
06:13didn't want to take Mienda off. I think Mienda was playing so well and I think he really
06:17deserved to go and you could tell his confidence was up, you could tell his body language was
06:21so strong. Honestly, my gut tells me that La Bresa wanted to keep him on the pitch a
06:26little bit longer and that was actually the longest he's played so far this season. I
06:29think it was about the 88th minute when Roussaint came on for Mienda. I'm not saying Isidore
06:33is not going to play off the left. I think especially because Sunderland didn't sign
06:36another winger right at the end of the transfer window, I think you will definitely see Isidore
06:40play that role. But I would be surprised, I still think he might play more minutes up
06:44front over the course of the season. I honestly think today the main factor was just how good
06:48Mienda was playing up front. I think La Bresa felt it would have been really harsh to take
06:51him off and I completely agreed with that and it was another step forward for Mienda.
06:57Thanks for your question, much appreciated. Let's have a look at your ones. Mark says
07:01essentially the same team as last season, minus our best player. At what point should
07:05I let my annoyance over the manager debacle go? Also, just how good is our LB? Does anyone
07:09genuinely see this coming? Well, I can put my hands up and say that I didn't see this coming.
07:14I think what's really interesting about it is that La Bresa had two really contrasting
07:18seasons at Lorient. One season where they overachieved and one season where they underachieved.
07:22I think what was consistent across the two seasons was that they were a super aggressive
07:27attacking team but they conceded a lot of chances and they conceded a lot of goals.
07:30So I really thought we were going to have quite an open and exciting style but one where
07:35Sunderland were quite gung-ho actually. It's been the complete opposite of that hasn't it?
07:40I really did not see this coming. The pressing coaching and the structure is incredibly
07:46impressive so far and I think he has definitely exceeded my expectations on that front. The other
07:50thing I would say Mark as well is that I think his temperament is perfect. He is so detached
07:55from all the noise and all the fuss that goes with Sunderland and I think that we are all
08:00really emotional when it comes to Sunderland because we love it so much and it's what makes
08:03the club so special. But I also think that it's important for the manager to be a bit detached
08:08from that and to not get sucked into some of that and I think Labris' temperament is really
08:15helping him and I think it's helped him through this tricky first month in terms of the transfer
08:19window being open. I think we've seen his calmness. In terms of the manager debacle,
08:24I don't know, I think we can let it go in terms of we always said towards the end of last season
08:29that what happened last season towards the end of last season wasn't good enough but it would
08:35be worth it just about if it gave him the time and space to get the right person in. Now everybody
08:39understands that Sunderland went for Will Still, we know Labris was on their shortest but they went
08:43for Will Still first and foremost so I think you can retain a bit of healthy scepticism probably
08:47about the whole process especially off the back of the McBeal one which really didn't work.
08:52So yeah I would say that I can understand a little bit maybe of wearing a skill but I think
08:57we have to say at this point so far Labris as a coach certainly and as a tactician looks to be
09:01a really really good pickup so fingers crossed that can continue. So Billy says really interesting
09:08question, how does Daniel get back in? It's a really interesting question because I was actually
09:12thinking during the first half I think they're really missing Daniel's progressive passing, the
09:15way he plays through the press, the way he can change a defensive situation for a counter-attack.
09:20I actually thought Sunderland missed that in the first half so my instinct is to say I think he'll
09:23come straight back in but the second half I think you know the McBeal three worked really well.
09:29Brown had another really good game, solid pickup. You can't drop Chris Rigg because his performances
09:34are unbelievable at the moment and his second half in particular I mean that kid can be anything,
09:38it's scary to watch what he can do and a word for Job as well. I mean Job played a completely
09:42different role today at the base of midfield but I thought he did it really really well, really
09:46mature performance so yeah it's a good question. I think Daniel probably does come in against
09:50Plymouth at the base of midfield. I think the reality is that while you can't drop Rigg at the
09:54moment you are going to have to drop him at some point. He cannot play 90 minutes to 46 games
09:59and so I wouldn't worry too much about that. I think rotation is inevitable and the nice thing
10:02is there are in-form options and I really like the Sam Ed Simon. I think that is such a clever
10:06addition, gives something completely different, a genuine, if you like, Corey Evans replacement
10:11and there's going to be games where that discipline, where that natural holding midfielder
10:16is going to be so important. I'm so pleased that Sunderland have done that. Yeah thanks very much
10:21for the question. I think I'm going to leave it there because I'm going to go and get my train.
10:24Hopefully you've enjoyed it and hopefully you're enjoying everything at the moment with Sunderland
10:28We'll be back on Monday or Tuesday with a podcast so keep an eye on that. We'll announce it. It'll be
10:32on all your podcast feeds but you can watch it live on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and all that
10:37as well. I imagine we'll get right into all the striker stuff, deadline day, the transfer window
10:41as a whole but I'm not going to talk too much about that. So yeah, thanks very much for watching
10:45as ever. How are the lads?