Leeds United remain without the suspended Liam Cooper, Kalvin Phillips, Eunan O'Kane and Samu Saiz. Conor Shaughnessy (ankle) is set to be out for several weeks and new signing Tyler Roberts will not make his debut as he has a knock. Cardiff could give debuts to new signings Gary Madine and Jamie Ward. Full-back Joe Bennett serves a one-match ban for his red card in the FA Cup defeat by Manchester City on Sunday. SAM's prediction Home win 38% Draw 28% Away win 34% SAM, the Sports Analytics Machine, is a super-computer built by @ProfIanMcHale of the University of Liverpool. Match facts Leeds have won one of their last 10 home league games against Cardiff (D3 L6), winning 1-0 courtesy of an Alex Mowatt strike in November 2015. Cardiff have not conceded more than once in any of their last 12 league trips to Elland Road (seven conceded in total) since a 3-0 defeat in April 1963. Since a run of four successive league wins, Leeds United have picked up just two points in their last five games (D2 L3), failing to score on four occasions in this run. Cardiff have conceded 56% of their league goals in the last 30 minutes this season; only opponents Leeds (58%) have recorded a higher percentage. Leeds have lost 11 of the 12 games they have fallen behind in this season in the Championship (92%); the worst such percentage in the competition. Since leaving Leeds in April 2013, Neil Warnock has faced his former club four times and won all four matches, two of which have been with Cardiff.
Etheridge, Manga, Morrison, Bamba, Traore, Grujic, Paterson, Ralls, Hoilett, Madine, Wildschut. Subs: Murphy, Zohore, Pilks, Jamie Ward, Feeney, Halfords, Damour No Jazz or NML.
Must say I quite like the middle of the park set up. Grujic, Paterson and Ralls can all get stuck in and maybe that's what's needed today after the Man City game (I won't let that go away ). With Paterson and Grujic holding fort in front of the back 4 I can see Ralls getting a more forward brief...........and maybe a goal???
Warnock has quite a range of strong options on the bench as well. Time to find out if Madine is worth the £££ we paid for him.
Following on from that thought about Rallsy above, I've just had a look at the odds on him scoring today. I thought a very tight 7/2 but I had to stick a tenner on it. Decided not to bother having a go at the result today - it can go any way of 3 by the look of it, so I'll stick to the scorers instead along with Rallsy. Got to go with the two central defenders Morro (9/1) and/or Bamba (12/1) getting on the end of a set piece at some time so it's a tenner on each. Lastly, I can't help feeling there is a goal in Paterson every time I see him play, so it's another tenner on him @ 5/1 although I think that's a bit mean.
Interesting selection. Madine starts and Ken on the bench. 25Etheridge 5Ecuele Manga 4Morrison 14Bamba 18Paterson 24Grujic 8Ralls 32Traore 35Wildschut 33Hoilett 44Madine Substitutes 10Zohore 12Feeney 13Pilkington 15Halford 20Damour 28Murphy 29Ward
I was happy at 2-0 with hoilett scoring for a max 5 points. Then we go and score again...... ......yyyyeeeeesssss.
