Marco Rose saw Bournemouth’s 2-0 win over Sunderland as a reward for the persistence his players and supporters had shown through a difficult start to the season. For Le Bris, the same afternoon brought a blunt assessment of a performance he said was not acceptable.
Bournemouth struck early through Marcus Tavernier, who scored in the sixth minute, and Sunderland’s task became harder when Kevin Danso was sent off in the 17th minute. Evanilson added a second shortly after half-time, leaving the visitors facing another damaging league defeat.
Rose was particularly pleased with the intensity Bournemouth brought to the game. He said the team had maintained its approach at the interval rather than allowing frustration or the pressure of recent results to alter the plan.
“Congrats to everyone at the club, to the lads, to our fans. They were really patient the last couple of weeks, even [though] we didn't get the points out of the game. Important win,” Rose told Sky Sports.
“We talked about it in the half-time that we stick to the plan, nothing changed, we stayed focus, we stay intense, we move them we tried to find the game and to try and score the second goal. Everything today we forced with our intensity, even the red card we were quite sharp in these kind of moments and that's why we have a clean sheet, we scored two goals and we won the game.”
The Bournemouth manager felt the performance reflected a collective determination to make the breakthrough after a frustrating run.
“We were quite dominant, we were intense, I felt even in the locker room and yesterday in training that we wanted to force this win with everything we have it's a mentality.”
Sunderland’s afternoon unravelled almost immediately. Going behind inside six minutes and then losing a player left Le Bris with a difficult tactical problem, but the manager did not use the circumstances to excuse the display.
“Tough game, disappointing game., really clear. Tough start, after six minutes 1-0 down then 15 minutes we played with 10 men for 75 [minutes] or even more,” he said.
“At half-time we decided to at least survive in the second half to make something happen. We were below the level, it's really clear. It's hard to take, hard to digest. It's very painful because we were not Sunderland an it's not acceptable.”
Le Bris said the team owed supporters a response after failing to compete at the level he expected. He also acknowledged that Sunderland’s opponents had taken full advantage of their mistakes.
“Reaction. We will have ups and downs in the season, this one is a big down. I'm very disappointed for the fans, they were with us until the last minute but they were not on the pitch which is a big problem in the Premier League because the opponent is strong. They are relentless, if you make mistakes they will seize them and it was the case today.”
The Sunderland manager accepted that the work ahead would be substantial, but insisted he would continue to back his players while demanding more from them.
“We won't find excuses. We'll keep working hard, stay humble. We know our position in this league. We have a busy schedule. We want to embrace the challenge but the position at the minute is not good.”
The result gave Rose his first Premier League win as Bournemouth manager. Sunderland, meanwhile, were left needing a strong response to prevent one bad afternoon from becoming a longer downturn.