Luke O'Nien made his first start since recovering from shoulder surgery as one of three changes to the Sunderland side that beat Fleetwood Town in midweek. O'Nien made a goalscoring comeback from the bench in that game after three-and-a-half months on the sidelines, and he was rewarded by Alex Neil with a place in the starting XI against Crewe Alexandra, with Elliot Embleton missing out.
Lynden Gooch also came back into the starting line-up, and he replaced Arbenit Xhemajli. The third change saw Jermain Defoe replace Patrick Roberts.
Sunderland had switched from a back four to a back three for the second half of that game against Fleetwood, and the side that Neil picked against Crewe looked very similar to the one that played the second half against the Cod Army. That would mean a back three once again of Carl Winchester, Bailey Wright, and Dennis Cirkin, with Gooch and Jack Clarke the wingbacks.
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Xhemajli dropped out of the squad entirely, but Leon Dajaku returned from injury to take up a place on the bench. Crewe boss David Artell also made three changes, in his case to the side that lost at home to Portsmouth on Tuesday night.
He brought in Callum Ainley, Rakeem Harper, and Zac Williams, with Chris Porter, Dan Agyei, and Luke Murphy, making way.
You can follow the game as it happens in our live blog here, plus get all the post-match analysis and reaction.
Today's teams
Sunderland: Patterson, Winchester, Wright, Cirkin, Gooch, Evans, Matete, O'Nien, Clarke, Defoe, Stewart
Subs: Hoffmann, Doyle, Dajaku, Embleton, Neil, Hume, Roberts
Crewe Alexandra: Richards, Offord, O'Riordan, Johnson, Williams, Harper, Griffiths, Lowery, Lundstram, Ainley, Long
Subs: Jaaskelainen, Porter, O Finney, Murphy, Sambou, Lawton, Salisbury
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