please log in to view this image Leeds Utd v Brighton Sunday 15th May@14:00 | Elland Road Leeds could be missing nine first team players, for the visit of in-form Brighton and Hove Albion on Sunday. The Seagulls were in scintillating form last weekend, as they ripped apart Manchester Utd 4-0 Jack Harrison picked up a knock in the 3-0 defeat against Chelsea, and was substituted in favour of Junior Firpo. It was later revealed that the 24yo went for a scan, though we do not know the results of this. According to Phil Hay, it is unlikely that Harrison will be fit for Sunday: “Others are simply injured, like Harrison, who went down in the 37th minute and is probably beyond Marsch’s reach for the meeting with Brighton.” Raphinha too took a knock, which Hay describes as a 'niggly hamstring' injury, but gave no indication whether he's likely to play at the weekend. Leeds are already without the services of Stuart Dallas (broken leg), Adam Forshaw (frackered knee cap), Luke Ayling (suspended), Daniel James (suspended), Crysencio Summerville (Ankle) and Tyler Roberts (hamstring). To make matters worse, the 'Premier Injuries' website give Patrick Bamford only has a 25% chance of starting on Sunday. It's not ideal, but Marsch may have to gamble, and throw him on for the last half hour.
Must win, lose and it could be lights out before we get on the coach for Brentford. I haven’t a clue how we will line up for this one, Raphinha and Rodrigo out wide maybe? Firpo obviously at LB as for RB I’m guessing we might have to play Shackleton there? If Bamford has 30 minutes in his legs or even 45 get him on from the start rather than the end. I’d be tempted to go for an old fashioned 4-4-2 for this one
Burnley will hopefully lose at Spurs so the players will know that if they can somehow scrape a win against Brighton they’ll just need a draw at Brentford to survive. There’s the motivation.
So Risty. Humour me. Imagine you're a Newcastle fan. You're done with Steve Bruce. Eddie Howe joins and you have optimisim. In his first 10 games he gets 1 win (home to Burnley) and 5 draws including home to norwich and watford where they were the poorer side in both. The only 2 games where there xg exceeded their opponents were the Burnley game and a home draw with Brentford. There was no champagne football. Then they come to Elland Road and we gift them a goal in a game we dominated. Howe manages to get some new signings in... their results pick up, though even now their league position really flatters them. What are you saying on the Newcastle board during those first 2 1/2 months?
Proof you can't judge a manager over a few weeks with someone else's squad. Howe though has a track record of being quality ik the PL with limited resources. We still haven't had a manager with PL experience in decades
I’ll answer but first a question for you… Why are you only picking up on my comments towards Jesse? There are quite a few on here as negative towards him as myself but they seem to pass you by? I can’t help but notice you pick up on everything I form an opinion on, there is an ignore button if I’m annoying you Answer: Eddie Howe was a great coach before joining Newcastle, at the time virtually everyone said they were the worse team in the division. Their own fans were resigned to relegation long ago. I don’t know what I’d have said, it depends on what I was watching. Did you honestly watch all there games? No of course you didn’t so you have no basis to form an opinion on how they play or were playing. My opinion on Marsch is looking at the team he took over, the style of play, how he conducts himself and what I see on the pitch. If you want to give Jesse longer that’s fine, I don’t expect everyone to feel the same one way or another but open your eyes a bit wider pal as I’m not the only one disappointed with Jesse
Thinking this will have to be the lineup. It’s a must win but I think we’ll be lucky to get a point but I’d like the team to prove me wrong. GK - Meslier RB - Shackleton CB - Koch CB - Cooper CB - Llorente LB - Firpo CM - Bate (Didn’t see the game this week so possibly Klich depending on how he played) CM - Phillips RM - Raphinha LM - Rodrigo ST - Gelhardt
Burnley would still have two games left though so although a loss for them and a win for us this weekend would be massive, we still wouldn't be guaranteed safety even if we beat Brentford. If they lose to Spurs AND Villa on Thursday, then it works with a point at Brentford.