REGIS Le Bris has confirmed he will make wholesale changes for Tuesday night's Carabao Cup first round tie at Preston - and wants his fringe figures to take their chance and prove their worth at Deepdale.
Le Bris is likely to name a side very similar to the team that took on Bradford in pre-season, with the likes of Abdoullah Ba, Romaine Mundle, Adil Aouchiche and Nazariy Rusyn all expected to start.
Hemir, Jewison Bennette and Joe Anderson, who are all expected to leave on loan before the end of the summer transfer window, will be involved, Le Bris has confirmed - and although some of those players might not feature in the head coach's plans as things stand, he is open to a change of mind, he says.
"I am confident with all of them," said Le Bris.
"If they have a good mindset, they are talented with different kind of profiles. If they want to improve, they are involved in the squad project, many things could happen really.
"In my career I've observed many evolutions that are incredible. I believe in development and improvement and sometimes it's crazy what they can become."
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On the whole, Sunderland's second string failed to impress last time out at Valley Parade but Le Bris expects an improved display against Preston, who are managerless after the exit of Ryan Lowe, who leaves Deepdale by mutual consent after just one league game.
Mike Marsh, Peter Murphy and Ched Evans have been placed in temporary charge of North End for the visit of Sunderland and next league game against Swansea.
Despite the underwhelming display from his fringe players last time out, Le Bris is optimistic heading to Preston.
He said: "There was a difference between the first and second game they played together, from Eldense to Bradford. I hope the third one will be better because they need time to build the references to play together and later in the season, they can take another step.
"The fact that it is a competitive game will be helpful for the players, I think. With a season of 46 games, many of these players are going to be involved. There are five, six, seven players in the team who are going to have a huge importance to the squad. So it's an important game for us, for them, the club."
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