Here are your Leeds United evening headlines on Friday, January 21.
Merson makes relegation prediction
Former Arsenal midfielder Paul Merson doesn't think Leeds United will go down this season and believes they will have enough to survive in the Premier League.
This is after the Whites secured back-to-back victories over Burnley and West Ham United and Marcelo Bielsa's side will be hoping to earn three successive wins for the first time since promotion to the top-flight.
Leeds' recent form has put them nine points clear of the relegation zone heading into this weekend's game against Newcastle United and Merson feels that the Whites are safe if they beat the Magpies.
"Leeds managed a brilliant result against West Ham in their previous Premier League game, and this is suddenly not as big a match now," he told SportsKeeda.
"The pressure is off for Leeds – if they win this game, they’re safe. Leeds do give away too many chances, however, and I think the pace of Almiron could hurt them.
"I’m going to go with a Leeds victory here. Newcastle are struggling in the Premier League and can’t seem to win a game. They were in front against Watford last week but just couldn’t seem to hang on.
"I think Newcastle can find the back of the net here, but Leeds should be able to win this game."
Harrison explains change in mentality
Leeds United winger Jack Harrison has explained what he has done to change his mentality after scoring four times in his last two Premier League matches.
The 25-year-old netted his first top-flight goal of the season in the 3-1 win over Burnley earlier this month, before he continued his good form by grabbing a hat-trick in the 3-2 success at West Ham United last weekend.
"I have been working with someone to approach games differently," Harrison told the official Leeds United podcast.
"I think at the start of the season I struggled a lot and I have continued working on the things that was working for me before. I think I got caught up on the negatives and thinking more about that, rather than the positive things I was doing in the games.
"So, I have been talking to someone about it to open my mind up a bit more and think about the positives and more about the reasons how I was doing so well last season and what I was doing to achieve this.
"I wanted to be more specific on my game, in particular, and replicating these things in the game and trying to get in the mindset through repetition."
Read more here.
Robinson makes Premier League admission
Former Leeds United goalkeeper Paul Robinson has questioned the Premier League's rules on postponements given the Whites' injury and illness situation at the moment.
Burnley's clash with Watford on Tuesday became the 22nd top-flight game to be called off due to Covid-19 this season, with the league confirming the Clarets were unable to field a side.
However, Leeds have had to field a bench full of Under 23s in recent weeks and have seemingly got on with the task in hand despite their issues and Robinson doesn't understand why the Whites have had to play their recent matches.
Speaking to MOT Leeds News, Robinson said: “Forshaw’s the biggest miss.
“I was looking at the injuries and I think it was probably seven first-team injuries before the game [at West Ham] so there’s another two.
“After the Arsenal-Tottenham game was cancelled, you’d have thought the Leeds game would be cancelled because of the number of injuries they’ve had.
“It baffles me because we’ve had injuries and the Africa Cup of Nations for years and years. Managers know players get injuries, they know they lose players to the Africa Cup of Nations – I cannot for the life of me understand why games are being cancelled for these reasons.
“Yes, COVID, I completely understand because your squad gets hit by it. That’s fine, no problem.
“But if you look at Leeds’ injury list and what they’ve had to battle on with for the last six weeks, if games are getting cancelled because of injuries then Leeds should’ve had at least four cancelled and the next one will definitely be cancelled too.
“They won’t though, they’ll just get on with it.”
