Following on from their 2-0 victory over Ipswich Town at the weekend, Sunderland are back in League One action this evening with an away clash against Shrewsbury Town, who only have 15 points on the board from 17 games.

After the Ipswich win, Sunderland manager Lee Johnson revealed that defender Dennis Cirkin will be out of action for the next few weeks with a hernia injury, with fellow full-backs Denver Hume and Niall Huggins out injured for the Shrewsbury match as well.

Taking this into account, here’s how we feel Sunderland could line up for their game against Shrewsbury. 

In goal, with Ron-Thorben Hoffmann having played in the majority of Sunderland's league games so far this season, we can see him taking his place once again on this occasion.

For the defence, we think Johnson will stick with the same back four that started against the Tractor Boys with Luke O'Nien, who scored their goal of the game at the weekend, staying at left-back with Carl Winchester on the right and the duo of Callum Doyle and Bailey Wright in the middle after managing to keep a clean sheet at the weekend.

In midfield, we think Johnson will keep Dan Neil and Corry Evans in the central roles but replace Nathan Broadhead, who is currently earning a weekly wage of £2.9k-per-week according to Salary Sport, and Lynden Gooch with Aiden McGeady and Leon Dajaku coming in to freshen the team up alongside Elliot Embleton.

Then for the attack, with Ross Stewart having scored ten goals in 19 League One games for Sunderland this season, it would seem likely that Johnson will keep him in the team on this occasion to see if he can continue his good run of goalscoring form and secure another win for his team in the process.

Whether Johnson goes with this exact starting XI or not, this is still a good opportunity for Sunderland to get another win on the board and keep them towards the top of the league table considering how Shrewsbury have lost more games (10) in the league this season than any other team alongside Doncaster Rovers and Crewe Alexandra.

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