‘Xhaka leads by example’published at 19:32 GMT
Sunderland v Everton (20:00 GMT)
Sunderland
Sunderland boss Regis Le Bris believes Granit Xhaka’s impact on his team cannot be understated. The 33-year-old midfielder has impressed for the Black Cats after arriving on Wearside from Bayer Leverkusen in the summer.
Le Bris said: “To be competitive at that level you need to own the performance on the pitch. For that reason, Granit helps a lot because he can manage different elements on the pitch but he’s not alone.
“He leads by example and gives this faith, this hope – when you play away against Chelsea, he believes we can win. He shows it, he tells it in the dressing room, everywhere, so you want to believe that it’s possible, you want to follow him. So he’s important for that as well.
“The target as a coach, you don’t want to be the main man, for me it’s not my purpose. I want to give knowledge, power, responsibility to the squad because I know you have to manage the game in real time.
“We are improving our level and we are now able to be more proactive, be more flexible, to be more adaptive to solve and fix problems and to seize opportunities as well.”
