After succumbing to a disheartening 7-0 defeat against Manchester City in their previous Premier League outing, which Marcelo Bielsa described as being their worst performance since his arrival at the Yorkshire club, Leeds United are back in action this evening with a home clash against Arsenal.
Speaking ahead of the match, the 66-year-old revealed the extent of the Whites’ worrying injury crisis at the moment, with the likes of Kalvin Phillips, Liam Cooper, Patrick Bamford, Rodrigo, Pascal Struijk, Dan James and Jamie Shackleton all out injured, along with Junior Firpo serving a ban after picking up his fifth yellow card of the season in midweek.
With this in mind, here’s how we feel Leeds could line up for their match against the Gunners, with four changes anticipated from Tuesday night’s drubbing.
Despite conceding seven goals against Pep Guardiola’s side, we don’t think Bielsa will drop goalkeeper Illan Meslier after having played in all of their league games so far this season – the youngster still made eight saves on Tuesday despite the heavy defeat.
In defence, we think Bielsa will put Luke Ayling at right-back to compensate for the injured Shackleton, with Cody Drameh coming in on the left to replace Firpo.
For the centre-back positions, with Robin Koch back in contention after being out since August with injury, the Whites boss may be forced to put him in from the start alongside Diego Llorente given the knocks to the likes of Cooper and Struijk.
In midfield, we can see Bielsa making the most out of the remaining senior players he has at his disposal and starting Stuart Dallas, Mateusz Klich and Adam Forshaw.
In the attacking positions, we think Bielsa will stick with Raphinha and Tyler Roberts to try and cause some problems for Arsenal’s defence. He could also take our advice and give youngster Sam Greenwood his first Premier League appearance of the season with James out injured.
That might see Jack Harrison, who is currently earning £60k-per-week according to Salary Sport, dropping out after an insipid performance in midweek where he lost all five of his duels. Indeed, the 25-year-old is yet to find the net in 14 league appearances this term, a sorry return for an attacking player.
Roberts could lead the line this evening in place of James, with Klich filling the vacancy in midfield left by the 22-year-old pushing further forward.
Whether or not Bielsa goes with the starting XI that we have suggested, this could be an ideal opportunity for Leeds to put their two previous defeats behind them and get some positive vibes back around the club, particularly with so many of their positional rivals not in action this weekend.
However, with Arsenal having won their two previous league games, scoring five goals and keeping two clean sheets, it could well be another tough ask for Leeds to get a positive result as their tough run of fixtures continues.
In other news: Leeds handed much-needed injury boost ahead of Arsenal clash which will leave fans thrilled