Dan Neil has returned refreshed and back to his best after being given a much-needed breather, according to Sunderland boss Alex Neil. Midfielder Neil was one of the group of young players that the head coach had said looked fatigued and jaded when he first took over last month, and after starting him in his first two games in charge he pulled him out of the team.
The 20-year-old has been used only sparingly from the bench in recent weeks, but today against basement side Crewe he made a big impact from the bench and scored the opening goal in Sunderland's 2-0 win at the Stadium of Light which kept them firmly in the hunt for a play-off place. Neil said: "I think Dan Neil showed me today exactly why people have been speaking so highly about him.
"Whereas, if I'm honest, I hadn't really seen that up to this point. He's naturally a really good player, but I thought he was excellent when he came on.
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"His intent with his passing, his finish was great, he was looking forward - everything. Dan played the first two games when I came in, and then after that I think we all looked at him and thought 'this kid needs a rest and taking out of the firing line'.
"Four or five games down the line, we haven't lost a match since he came out of the team, but then people say 'why isn't Dan Neil playing?'. You have to earn the right to be in the team, first and foremost, but equally we needed to make sure we used him sparingly to protect him as much as anything else.
"Same goes for Callum Doyle. The situation hasn't changed overnight, what has happened is that he is refreshed and I thought he had a really good impact when he came on.
"That's the situation we wanted to get ourselves in four games ago, now we're there and that's not a mistake. People forget things in football. People ask why he isn't playing, but the reason is that four games ago he was knackered."
Neil's goal came in the 85th minute, and it came as a major relief after Sunderland had struggled to break down the Crewe defence. And fellow sub Patrick Roberts added the second in the final minute of normal time, as Sunderland clinched back-to-back wins for the first time in 2022.
"If you look at Patrick, he is getting sharper and fitter with every game and I thought he had a great impact when he came on," said Neil. "We were very dominant throughout the game, but certainly we didn't create as many opportunities as we would like.
"If you look at the starting XI it was very aggressive in terms of the approach, and I think that sometimes when you get so many attacking players on the pitch it allows the opposition to sit deep and narrow. The game really altered when the substitutes came on, I thought they made a big impact.
"Patrick playing more off the front rather than completely up front meant he played between the spaces, I think Dan did great and had an impact, Leon [Dajaku] was very direct as well. Whether we win the game in the 89th minute, or the 93rd minute, or the first minute, the simple fact is that our job is to win the game.
"Whenever we score, and whether we win 4-0 or 2-0, at this moment in time the most important thing is getting those three points on the board. We were far and away the most dominant team.
"Did we really do enough with our possession? No - I think we can do better. But we won the game 2-0 and deservedly so."
Once again, there was no place in the squad for on-loan Everton striker Nathan Broadhead. Broadhead made his comeback from a hamstring injury in the draw at Charlton last weekend, but he missed the midweek win against Fleetwood and now this victory against Crewe after feeling some stiffness in his hamstring.
Neil says it is not a major concern, but will wait to see how the 23-year-old is next week before deciding whether to involve him at Lincoln City next Saturday.
He said: "It's not a massive issue, but he was out today which was disappointing.
"I'm not sure how Nathan will be, we'll just need to wait and see how he is next week."
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