Fabio Borini was surprised Sunderland boss Gus Poyet benched Emanuele Giaccherini for the derby win over Newcastle United.
Giaccherini arrived from Juventus in the summer with a big reputation but Poyet looked elsewhere for the Tyne-Wear derby line-up and Borini suspects there was a clear plan at work.
"I don't know why Giaccherini was benched and I don't know if he's spoken with the boss about it," he said.
"We were all saying that it was an English line-up, and perhaps an English line-up might be more motivated for a derby."
