please log in to view this image Birmingham City v Leeds Utd Saturday 12th August at 15:00hrs | Elland Road Leeds Utd make the two and a half hour trip down to St Andrews to play Birmingham City on Saturday afternoon, knowing that three valuable points will get them back on track, after the disappointment of the draw against Cardiff last weekend. The two sides last met Christmas 2019, when Marcelo Bielsa's Whites edged a nine goal thriller (at St Andrews), courtesy of a 95th minute Wes Harding own goal. That season, Leeds completed the double over their West Midland rivals, helping them top the Championship, ten points clear of West Brom in second place. The departure gate at Leeds Bradford Airport shows little prospect of slowing down, with Tyler Adams being the latest in a long list of players to pledge his allegiance away from Elland Road. The knock on effect this may have with the remaining players is not worth thinking about; needless to say confidence will be wavering. Wilfred Gnonto's refusal to play midweek shows a complete lack of respect, and a lack of unity at the club. Will he play on Saturday? Nobody knows, not even the gaffer!!! Georginio Rutter and Cody Drameh have recovered from knocks, and are likely to feature, even if they don't start. Sam Greenwood is back in training, but having missed most of pre-season with a foot injury, is weeks ago from match fitness. Crysencio Summerville picked up a knocked last weekend, and is likely to miss the visit to Birmingham. They will also be without the services of Stuart Dallas, Liam Cooper, Junior Firpo, Patrick Bamford and Mateo Joseph. Luiz Sinisterra is carrying a knock, but should play. Daniel Farke has the luxury of choosing between Illan Meslier and Karl Darlow between the sticks. Juninho Bacuna may have earned himself a place in the starting line up, after an impressive performance midweek for the Blues. The midfielder scored a brace against Cheltenham, helping his side reach the second round of the Caribou Cup. Veteran keeper John Ruddy is likely to displace from Neil Etheridge between the sticks while Scott Hogan should return to lead the line with support of former Leeds striker Tyler Roberts.
Last week I called the season a slog. Jeez I'm starting to think the correct term is up hill struggle.
The worst thing is that there will be people telling you to keep the faith and we'll end the season in the top six. If that's true then we'll be that team to goes on an amazing run after Christmas and just sneaks in.
Although not in Eire’s league I’m pretty negative generally. But really we don’t know yet how bad (or good) things are. I wish Gnonto would **** off though.
I’d imagine it might be too soon to see Rodon start. It’s not the exits hurting us, it’s the injuries. Adams wasn’t going to be fit this month, Gnonto isn’t as good as Summerville and Sinisterra, Wober changing his mind hurt, but the rest good riddance. Im going for a Leeds win, please no more injuries, then hopefully by the time we face WBA, we’ll have another couple of transfers over the line and starting to look more balanced. Another week and we should have Rutter, Summerville and Drameh all available and Rodon up to speed We’ve been expecting Meslier, Gnonto and Adams to be sold to fund other areas, nothings changed.
I don’t mind Gnonto being sold but not given away. We should be looking at the same price Southampton are asking for their young players. He has the same PL experience and is an international. Minimum £40 million. It would price Everton out and I don’t want him going there, ****ty club.
So in a nutshell, you're saying that incredible unbeaten run you mentioned might finally come to an end
Taking into account the ongoing upheaval of the squad and the injury problems, to come away from here still unbeaten would be a great result.
If so, it’s just a little bump on the track as the Farke express gathers steam on its rampant and relentless charge to the title.
I think we have a fairly tough run of fixtures (on paper) at the start of the season. Last weekend’s being the ‘easiest’ one. Agree avoiding defeat would be a decent result all things considered. Need to stay in touch though through September when the fixtures look ‘better’
