please log in to view this image Leeds Utd v Aston Villa Thursday 10th March@19:45 | Elland Road Steven Gerrard's Aston Villa are the visitors to Elland Road on Thursday evening as the Whites go in search of their first points in six games. Ironically, the last point Leeds achieved was at Villa Park four weeks ago when Llorente and a Dan James double gave the Whites a well deserved share of the spoils. Following the six goal thriller, Villa lost at St James Park, and were also defeated at home against lowly Watford. They then beat Brighton comfortably on the South Coast, before cruising to a 4-0 victory over Southampton last weekend. They seem to be hitting form at the wrong time, but how many occasions have we seen that, this season? Everton were smashed 5-0 by Spurs last night, but still have two games in hand over the Whites, and are a point behind. A win for Watford on Thursday night would see the Hornets move to within a point of Leeds if they can overcome Wolves and Leeds lose to Villa. Burnley travel to Brentford on Saturday lunchtime. They are currently two points behind Leeds with a game in hand. Leeds will be without the services of Tyler Roberts for the remainder of the season. The 23yo underwent surgery on the hamstring injury he picked up last weekend at the King Power Stadium. Patrick Bamford is likely to get some game time, but not expected to start. There's also good news for Kalvin Phillips. The England midfielder is also hoping for a place on the bench following his four-month lay off with a hamstring injury. Jesse Marsch is likely to recall Adam Forshaw to the starting line up. The 30 yo picked up a knock in training last week, and was dropped to the bench. We await news on whether Diego Llorente has overcome the knock he picked up a fortnight ago.
Think we will get a result here, which would turn our season around, although if the unthinkable happened and we get beat, i will definitely have a sharp intake of breath, and think the worst. So everything crossed for me as this game could give an indicator to where we will be next season.
As someone pointed out on the other thread Ell, Watford are 4 points behind so can’t leapfrog whatever this result is.
James gave Mings a torrid time at their place, put him and Raphinha up front, play the ball forward on the ground and we would get a result out of it, no good pumping high balls up, Mings loves that. Put Forshaw man to man on Coutinho too, don't give him an inch if poss, he was the difference between us getting 1 point not the 3 last game.
Mings is guaranteed to give us a penalty or two if we have Rahinha, Rodrigo or Joffy running at him or all 3
Morning all. Will be going to ER on Thursday more in hope than expectancy. In our our current form it's just too difficult to forecast with any degree of certainty how the match will turn out and as we could just as easily lose as win. Leeds 17/10 Villa 6/4 As shown above even the bookies can't call it. One thing we do know is that whilst we desperately need the 3 points we simply must bring our losing run to an end.
Can't see anything but a win in this type of game will do, not even a draw, as our horrendous goal difference could yet send us down
If we lose this one I think its pretty much over. It is even more morale sapping when you have played well and lost. If it happens Thursday I think the squad will be mentally shot to pieces. Big game. Must win.
Ideally we need 4 points from the next 2 games. Doesn't matter how we get them. However let's say we end up with only 1 or 2 points, not great but we'll still be in the mix to stay up. Plenty on here wanted a change of coach and now we've had one it's a bit much to state if he doesn't win his first home game then it's likely all over. Last time I checked you can't be relegated in the second week of March, unless you're cut way adrift at the bottom. This will probably go to the wire and as it stands there are still 6/7 clubs in the mix for 3 relegation spots. As I've stated before, it's entirely likely that at some point we'll drop into the bottom 3. How we react to that as a club and a fanbase will decide not only our immediate future but also the next 10 years. Fight don't give up.
I'm not giving up. The players look like they need something good to happen and quickly. If we lose against Villa it starts becoming "we lose no matter what we try". I think Marsch has had a good response from the players looking at the performance against Leicester but this squad looks so short of confidence. It will only take a couple of bad results for the rot to set back in and we had one last Saturday. With every passing game and failure the pressure ratchets up. You can sense it looking at the players.
Aftenoon all. What I saw from the Leicester game was that there were more crosses fired in low which is better considering how bad our high crosses have been. I was also pleased that we tried different types of corners. Normally our corners don't even clear the first man. I liked that Raphinha seemed to have more freedom across the front line and wasn't tied to the wing. I think with another few days of training things could start to click. I think the biggest lift will be when Phillips and Bamford play, whenever that will be. It will be like 2 new signings given how long they've been out. We have always missed Phillips and I think that is a large part of the reason we've struggled. I have to agree about Gelhardt. He shows loads of promise but it looks to me like he gets frustrated. He will be a star but maybe not until next season. I'm looking forward to seeing Archie Gray, Nohan Kenneh, Lewis Bate, Amari Miller and the frizzy haired CB whose name escapes me. It looks very promising for the future.
We'll see if the players have got the fight in them in the next few games the fans will, as always, get behind them at Elland Road on Thursday it's a must win on for me, we need to capitalise on the teams around us losing this past week.
Let's hope we don't get into a situation where a game really is must win. Come on Leeds we can do this.
Some bottle needed here,it's a mustn't lose at the very least we have got to take advantage of two home games and stop this nil points from extending further, if we don't I fear the worst that the obvious poor results will impact on the player's confidence to halt the decline to the abyss
Main worry for me. Everyone keeps saying we only need three wins to be safe with eleven games left. We’ve only managed one in the last fourteen. Where’s the evidence that can change?
3 in the last 14 if only considering league games (Palace, Burnley and West Ham). 7 of those 14 were against the top 7. 3/11 of the fixtures left against the top 7. Obviously replacing Bielsa there is a lot more uncertainty as to what will happen, but still hopeful!
We are averaging 0.85 points per game, so if we do that over the next 11 games guess what 9.3 points, so whichever way you cut it we should get the 9 points
True but that also means them improving their seasons form too. Reality is one of them may well do that… there are a lot of relegation 6 pointers coming up. although they have games in hand, Everton have a tough looking run in. The next 30 days or so will likely decide it… we have a lot of games in the next month against sides where we can (not will) pick up points. over to you Jesse. Tonight feels like a big game, but I suspect they all will now ‘til the end of the season.
