Sunderland assistant manager Steve Parkin has revealed that he and Phil Parkinson are weighing up changes to his side as they gear up to face Rochdale in the league on Tuesday night.

The Black Cats are in a very rich vein of form at the moment after their narrow win over fellow promotion hopefuls Ipswich Town on Saturday afternoon, leapfrogging them into the play-off places on goal difference.

Chris Maguire’s 81st-minute strike was enough to settle matters at the Stadium of Light and was their sixth league win in the last nine league games under Parkinson.

New signings Bailey Wright and Kyle Lafferty featured and both had an impact on proceedings, with the centre-back helping the side to a clean sheet and Lafferty coming off the bench to provide an assist for the game’s only goal.

With two games in such a short space of time for the promotion chasers, changes might be needed to keep the squad fresh, especially after such a hard-fought win against the Tractor Boys.

Speaking in the place of Parkinson in his pre-match press conference, Black Cats number two commented on how the manager is contemplating changes ahead of Rochdale’s trip to Wearside. He stated (as quoted by the Chronicle): "Yeah possibly.

"We're going to sleep on it as there's enough time to decide whether any players are a little bit leggy and need a breather, or whether it's a similar team.

"The good thing for us is that we look at the bench and it's a good one. We've got good players, we've brought good players in and they've been great, training well. We are going to need all those players to get through to the end of the season.

"You have to be very fortunate to pick the same team week-in, week-out. Suspensions are looming, as we know, touch wood we don't get any injuries, but it's important there's a group that are trying their best to get in the first team because it pushes the lads along knowing their places might be in jeopardy. There's a good drive in the group to all want to play. 

"We've gone through everything we need to on Rochdale with the whole of the group this morning, not just the team which played at the weekend, so they've all aware tactically of what we want to do tomorrow."

Rochdale are next up for the Black Cats as they look to close the gap to the automatic promotion places.

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The verdict

In an ideal world, Parkinson would definitely want to keep his side the same for tomorrow’s clash with Rochdale, given their current great form.

However, the reality of playing in the EFL is that the games come thick and fast, meaning having the option to rotate has to be utilised every now and then to keep things fresh.

Sunderland’s squad depth is certainly a lot strong than a lot of other sides in the division and they need to take advantage of that if they want to maintain their consistency throughout the business end of the season.

They will be expecting to close the gap on Tuesday night but know that the visitors have a lot of quality going forward and could prove a handful for any side that Parkinson and Parkin field.