Changes on the injury list look few and far between for Leeds United while Joe Gelhardt’s ongoing inability to train for a full week means Jesse Marsch has a select few dilemmas. Junior Firpo, Patrick Bamford, Tyler Roberts and Jamie Shackleton remain unavailable, while Leo Hjelde and Gelhardt seem to be in the reckoning for the squad, but perhaps not the starting line-up.
Marsch has previously admitted Gelhardt would have started for him by now had it not been for a litany of small problems coming between the striker and a full week’s training. On Thursday, the head coach said, again, Gelhardt had not been able to train fully after a dead leg in the Premier League 2 match on Monday night.
It seems distinctly unlikely Gelhardt will start at Vicarage Road. The big debate rests on Kalvin Phillips and how the England international is integrated into the starting line-up, if at all.
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There was no sense of doubt in Marsch’s answers when he spoke about Phillips and the impression he made from the bench on Saturday. We know how quickly Phillips has historically hit the ground the running upon returning from injury, so he should be ready for 90 minutes at Watford if needed.
However, Marsch will want to ensure he shows loyalty to his players and he will have seen little wrong in the way Mateusz Klich or Adam Forshaw have played for him up to now. Given how they have played and how cautious Marsch has wanted to be with his injury returners, there is a case to suggest Phillips may well be held back on Saturday.
On the other hand, there is a 16-day break after the Watford match and Marsch may feel the need to get a start under Phillips’s belt sooner, rather than waiting to begin that process deep into the back end of April. Klich’s been substituted by Marsch in each of his starts under the American so far, though the withdrawal at Molineux was enforced.
The Pole was dropped for Marsch’s second game too. He has previously been described as a makeshift six who prefers to play further forward by the head coach, so Klich may be the man sacrificed for Phillips.
Diego Llorente was shaky at points on Saturday, but did not do anything to suggest Marsch is about to axe the Spain international. The head coach acknowledged Robin Koch could rightly feel hard done by because of his limited minutes, but that may be him pre-empting another disappointment this weekend.
Predicted line-up: Meslier; Ayling, Llorente, Cooper, Dallas; Phillips, Forshaw; Raphinha, Rodrigo, Harrison; James.
