Hey! We're a week removed from the Watford game now, I've all but forgotten about it by now- which I suppose is a good thing. Theres no doubting in terms of a full 90 Minute performance the Watford game was our worst of the season, and we'll have to go some way to top (or bottom?) the performance on Saturday.
Its hard to say how Leeds will perform on Saturday, they've definitely picked up since Redfearn was appointed permanently; but with the off the field situation with Cellino as a possible distraction, combined with the fact they blew a 1 Goal lead to Ipswich and ended up losing 4-1 to them last weekend. As such its hard to say which Leeds will show up on Saturday, the team that goes and loses 4-1 to Ipswich or the team that can comfortably beat Derby 2-0.
With the Bettinelli suspension, Kit has said Kiraly will be in goal for tomorrows game. I'm not Kiralys biggest fan- but I'm also not going to write him off before he's even stepped onto the Elland Road pitch. I said in my Watford review I'd have looked at playing Magnus Norman, but I knew that wasn't going to be the case when he played in the Youth Cup in midweek- which would've left Rodak or Kiraly; and Kiraly is the choice I'd have made from those two. I think I saw somewhere in midweek that we tried to get Jamie Ashdown in- presumably for the sake of this one game, and as I said in my review I didn't see the point in inflating an already big squad for the sake of one game.
I'm also not going to be placing the blame solely on Kiraly if we do concede, our defence since Kit took over permanently has regressed tremendously. I've been a big fan of Bodurov since we signed him, and his performance against Norwich has meant I did- and still have a lot of good will towards him. The Watford game (at this stage) I'm writing off as one of those games, you also have to consider the fact Watfords team was almost unique in that they had 4 attacking players with pace, when we usually have to deal with at the most two. With this in mind I'm willing to give Burn and Bodurov some more time as our Centre-Back partnership, because as I've said you can't ignore the bad games they've had as a pair without also looking at the good games they had. In Kits Press Conference he confirmed Amorebieta and Hoogland were still out injured, which all but confirms Stafylidis and Grimmer continuing as our full-backs. However, I'd seriously look at bringing Zverotic back in. Although I haven't seen these two in a flat out foot race I think Zverotic is faster than Grimmer on balance, and using the Ipswich game as my basis the Left-Hand side of Mowatt and Warnock isn't the quickest- and we should look to exploit that.
Once again using the Ipswich game as a basis, they use a similar formation to the one we do. Its a must we start Parker and LVC, the third midfield spot is more of a debate. I think the Watford game all but confirmed Fofana isn't yet ready for a start- as such it comes down to Hyndman or Williams for the third spot. I'd start Williams just because of his added pace, which can help stretch the Leeds back line- because as I'll discuss later if we play our game right we'll be able to stretch the Leeds team similar to the way Watford did to us. This will also give us another dimension off the bench if required as Hyndman is very comfortable on the ball and can pick a pass when necessary. Ruiz as I discussed in my Watford review shouldn't have been subbed off when we needed to bring Kiraly on- and he should come back into the team for this game, because as I'll go into more detail with when discussing our front line we should (if we play to a good standard) be able to create space for all of our offensive players.
The spotlight for this match is of course going to be firmly on McCormack, and if we're smart we'd use this against Leeds. Redfearn being at Leeds as a coach before finally taking over of course means he firmly knows what Ross is capable of and will try his best to neutralise him. The role that Ross has played for us will hopefully cause endless problems for the Leeds defence. The fact the majority of the Leeds defence have played with McCormack could work in our favour, as they'll know how he plays and hopefully see the need to double up on him- which is exactly what we need in my opinion. The doubling up on McCormack will leave Hugo with a lot more space, and that is when he can flourish. Hugo is our top scorer for a reason and if you give him enough chances he will put at least one of them away, and with the combination of his partnership with McCormack and the fact we should be able to stretch their defence with McCormack being the decoy creating more space for Bryan and/or Williams and Christensen.
Starting XI for Leeds:
Kiraly
Zverotic, Bodurov, Burn, Stafylidis
Christensen, Parker, G. Williams
Ruiz
Rodallega McCormack
I think the McCormack performance is going to be the key to this game for us in this game. If he shows up, so will the rest of the team and we'll be able to get something from the game before we go into the festive week (and a half).
Thanks as always for reading, any feedback is of course appreciated. Lets face it, a performance like the Watford one is about as low as it can get- as such we can expect a much improved performance, and hopefully somewhat of a rebound effect from the game and we come out of the blocks like we did against Charlton. However the rebound argument can be also be used for Leeds, no matter what happens the game tomorrow will definitely be an intriguing one with the crowd showing Ross some much deserved love and appreciation.
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