Leeds Utd v Fulham Tuesday 30th June 2020 at 19.45pm | Elland Road Luton Town are the visitors to Elland Road on Tuesday evening as the High flying Whites look to build on their impressive display against the Cottagers last weekend. Leeds and West Brom have been taking it in turns to top the Championship, with nothing to divide both clubs. Unfortunately for the Baggies, their loss against Brentford at the weekend not only saw the Whites leapfrog them, but have allowed the Bee's to move to third place, and within five points of the West Midlands club. Leeds 3-0 victory have extended their lead between themselves and the play off contenders to 8 points, with only only seven games remaining. Plucky Luton have moved within three points of safety following James Collins 72nd minute strike at the Liberty Stadium, albeit their goal difference would make it very unlikely. The Hatters never say die attitude have moved Graeme Jones men move into the top 10 form guide (seventh). Leeds are second. Marcelo Bielsa must decide whether to stick with the same XI that started the game against Fulham, or promote Alioski and the very impressive Hernandez who ran the show in the second half against Fulham. The fixture list now picks up pace. We have seven games remaining over the next 25 days (last fixture 22nd July).
Some pre-match disruption in the Luton camp too... "Luton Town have released goalkeeper Marek Stech, defenders Frankie Musonda, Donervon Daniels and Lloyd Jones, along with forward Jake Jervis. Stech, 30, joined from Sparta Prague in 2017 and helped them win two promotions from League Two to the Championship. He was named in the PFA League One team of the season last term. Luke Berry, Danny Hylton, Elliot Lee, Callum McManaman, Jacob Butterfield, and Glen Rea will remain at the club for the remainder of the season. They also had contracts which were due to expire on 30 June, but have agreed to stay at Kenilworth Road until the campaign, which was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic, is completed. The club say discussions with loanees Luke Bolton, James Bree, Izzy Brown and Cameron Carter-Vickers over the extension of their deals until the end of the season are ongoing."
Very good player Izzy and he'll be out to prove a point to Bielsa and the other coaches. Not in a vengeful way, more just professional pride to earn their respect after a disappointing season with us. Hopefully we'll keep him quiet as he's had 7 assists this season and not started many matches. That's fairly decent when you think our best is Jack Harrison with 8 assists who's started every match.
Not sure where you got your stats from, but this lot say that Harrison has 9. And of course, Pablo with 6. I note old boy Mowatt has 7 too! https://www.statbunker.com/competitions/MostAssists?comp_id=640
Well spotted Jonny, however writing factually incorrect statements is not unknown in the estate agents written vocabulary.
And yet both https://www.whoscored.com/Players/317896/Show/Jack-Harrison https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/jack-harrison/leistungsdaten/spieler/417346 have it down as 8 assists. Not that it matters either way, as Jammy's point about Brown is still valid
Cannot help but wonder if this is one of those season defining matches that only becomes apparent after the fact. A seemingly home banker against a club in the bottom 3 with a poor away record. It sounds awfully similar to Wigan (h) from last season when we inexplicably imploded and blew our chances of automatic promotion on that fateful Good Friday afternoon at ER. Most who were there will remember being flabbergasted at seeing us throw away a 1-0 lead against 10 men when headless chickens have shown greater composure than our players. Tonight is a potential banana skin and psychologically it's one of those games that can do great damage if lost but is just another 3 points if you win. My feeling is we will need a top performace to put away a confident Luton side who are in great form. They come with nothing to lose as everyone expects a thumping home win and will no doubt defend resolutely and will be difficult to break down. As we saw last season it's not complacency that is our enemy. It's more being able to keep cool heads under pressure and having the neccessary calmness and patience during those vital moments.
There's a little part of me that would like us to park the bus for a match like this. Just to see if we were capable of pinching a point(s) from breakaways. Perhaps once the Championship is secured we can think about it. We've got to get some practice in for the Champions League the season after next.
As ever, the first goal is key. If we get it then it should be a straight forward victory as we will pick them apart as they try and press for an equaliser. Let's face it, they will set up trying to frustrate us and then try and pinch something from a set piece. If they get the first goal it might just be too much for us to break them down. Saying that, if you can't beat Luton at home then should you really be considered worthy of Champion status. These are the games that should be 3 points.
I wonder is Bielsa making the players sit through the video of that Wigan game today. Surely would be a great motivator
...and Wigan had a Chelsea loanee, Reece James, who was rather good. Luton have a Chelsea loanee in Izzy Brown. Will he come back to haunt us?
Oh ffs I forgot about him. I think we've enough in the locker to beat these. But at least they will have to try and get a result because of their League position. It would be nice to get this over and done with and score early on, three up would be nice, surely we couldn't throw a lead like that away.
