Sunday’s trip to Cardiff City will be Leeds United’s fourth match in 12 days. Given it’s a cup fixture and Jesse Marsch has a recent history of rotating players across intense periods, we can be sure changes are coming,
The elephant in the room is who’s fit and who isn’t. The head coach would not name names when he mentioned a large number of players were carrying knocks before the match.
Given we have no idea who he’s talking about, we’ll have to treat everyone as available beyond Adam Forshaw, Patrick Bamford, Stuart Dallas and Luis Sinisterra. Illan Meslier was taken out of the EFL Cup trip to Molineux and given he was suffering with glandular fever on the other side of Christmas, this could be a chance for Marsch to rest him.
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Joel Robles got plenty of pitch time during the mid-season break and Marsch will want to keep the veteran sharp. Rasmus Kristensen looks nailed on to replace Luke Ayling at right-back in their recent hokey cokey.
Diego Llorente, Junior Firpo, Jack Harrison, Sam Greenwood, Crysencio Summerville and Joe Gelhardt have all seen limited, or no, minutes in recent matches too. All six should be expected to start in Wales.
Greenwood’s position remains difficult to call. If Gelhardt leads the line, the slot behind him is vacant, assuming Brenden Aaronson and Wilfried Gnonto get rests.
Sonny Perkins, Mateo Joseph and Cody Drameh all saw more than an hour on Friday night with the under-21s, which effectively rules them out of starting Sunday’s game. Darko Gyabi was conspicuous by his absence from that match at Meadow Lane and should start at Cardiff with the first team.
Either Greenwood partners him in midfield and one of Aaronson, Rodrigo or Gnonto start in the front four, or the former Arsenal forward plays off Gelhardt and Marc Roca or Tyler Adams play alongside Gyabi. Leo Hjelde’s under-21 involvement and Liam Cooper’s hectic festive period could make it an obvious debut for Max Wober next to Llorente.
Predicted line-up: Robles; Kristensen, Llorente, Wober, Firpo; Gyabi, Roca; Harrison, Greenwood, Summerville; Gelhardt.
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