Leeds Utd v Swansea City Saturday 31st August 2019 15.00 | Elland Road First take on second as the two pace setters in the Championship come head to head. Both Leeds and Swansea have recorded four wins and a draw, and are only separated by a (league) goal difference of one. In fact, free scoring Swansea have scored 18 goals in the last 5 league and Cup games. Spaniard Borja Baston has helped himself to five goal already this term. The ex Atletico Madrid striker has rediscovered his scoring touch after loan spells on the continent with Malaga and Alaves. Perhaps he is the ready made replacement to Oli McBurnie who signed for the Blades in the Summer for 20m. They also sold or released eleven players in the Summer including Ayew, Bony, Fer, Routledge, and lets not forget Daniel James' transfer to the red side of Manchester for 15m. Swans boss Steve Cooper bought in Jack Bidwell, a left back from QPR, Aldo Kalulu, an attacking midfielder from FC Basel, Sam Surridge, a young midfielder from Bournemouth and Ben Wilmot who is also a midfielder from Watford. Cooper has no new injury worries, and welcomes back Jack Clarke to his squad. The Welsh U21 International was diagnosed with cancer last Summer, but has won his fight and is on the comeback trail to his professional football career - I'm sure, we all wish him the best. Leeds boss Marcelo Bielsa also has no fresh injury concerns to worry about and is likely to field the same team that beat Stoke at the 365 Stadium last weekend. On loan striker Eddie Nketiah continues to ask questions of Bielsa by scoring, as he did against the Potters midweek. Fit again left back Barry Douglas will fight it out with alioski for the left back role whilst Luke Ayling and Tyler Roberts will both miss out, but have at least returned to first team training. Pablo Hernandez looks set to face his former club - how they wish they had him in their team....
Like most people who follow Swansea I am just stunned by what Cooper has done. I thought Potter was excellent, given the situation he had to work in, but Cooper seems better. The team is playing the best football it has played since the first 6 months of Laudrup, and that was the best I have ever seen from the Swans - and Cooper has only just started. New manager bounce? Possibly, but it looks too solid, too focused for that. It is so good to see young players who you knew had real potential actually achieving that, game after game. So we play Leeds. World renowned manager, team playing very good football, against our very young team, with a new manager inexperienced in the Championship, away from home. Frankly, nobody fancies it. I would settle for a draw. We might win, you will probably win, it's possible we will get a battering, you won't get a battering. Hernadez is a very fine player, always was when he turned up - which wasn't often. Bielsa seems to have fixed that. I don't think we would want him back, he's better off where he is.
Tough game early - stupid to be talking about 6 pointers in August but would be fantastic if we did treat this like a 6 pointer and win and get rid of those bogeys from last year (thinking Norwich and Sheff Utd at home)
Great write up Our thread is attached: https://www.not606.com/threads/leeds-united-v-swansea-city.377008/
Good post thanks. Hernandez is a great player and rescued you last season at the Liberty so hoping he has an off day on Saturday. This could either be a 0-0 or a game with lots of chances and then its down to who can put them away. I expect our defence to be under a lot of pressure and hopefully we can cope and catch you on the break which is our strength this season.
Both teams playing the best football I've seen (admittedly from highlights mostly on the other teams) so far this season so bound to be a drab **** game
Lets just say I think we will give you boys a better game than last season, it will be end to end, no doubt about that, may the best team win.........
This is going to be our toughest game yet. 2 teams vying for top spot and to go 3 points clear, or both share the spoils. I wouldn't be surprised if it gets a bit out of hand, especially during second half when frustrations start to fray. This can be a draw, cos we ended up battering each other off park, or, Leeds fitness will tell in end and we'll nick it. If one team happens to be all over the other, it'll mean 1 team is having an off day. 2-1 to Leeds, Leeds nicking it on fitness with a Costa, Nikita or Alioski goal.
Not sure why we would get frustrated, you're at home with the pressure on your team to perform and win We know this game for us and you won't define the season and a draw wouldn't be the end of the world (for us ) . You can only measure your fitness against us on the day and we have a young squad and have a habit of scoring late goals so we'll see but I'm hopeful for an entertaining game and hope to see us both at the top at the end of the season
We need to just concentrate on us and forget about everyone else in the league. Play to our strengths and let the opposition do the worrying please!
Our front line has more options this season, as good as McBurnie was last season, we have improved with Baston and Ayew, not to mention Surridge. Celina is also stepping up to the plate with goals, so we have options around the opposition box which proved deadly against Brum and QPR, I know you have a good frontline also, going to be interesting which frontline gets on the chalkboard first...................
