please log in to view this image Nottingham Forest v Leeds Utd Saturday 8th February 2020 17.30 | The City Ground Second placed Leeds travel down to the East Midlands for a tea time kick off against promotion hopefuls Nottingham Forest. Four points and two places separate the teams, but more worryingly Leeds recent form over the last 8 games see the Whites tiltering just above the relegation zone in 19th place with Barnsley, whereas Forest top the form guide with 17 points over the last eight games. Will we see wholesale changes in the Leeds line up following the shambolic display against Wigan at the weekend? Will we see any changes at all? Augustin completed 45 minutes for the reserves on Monday, and by all accounts looked rusty. Surely, the only way of gaining match fitness is actually playing for the first team? Will he even be on the bench? What about Poveda? Should he be given an opportunity to show what he can do? Do Bamford and Casilla deserve to be in the starting line up If not, who would you start instead? Leeds legend Eddie Gray certainly believes that Augustin should make his debut on Saturday :- “I think definitely he’ll be used,” “Scoring goals has been a problem recently. “Patrick Bamford scored his couple against Millwall and you’re hoping he’s going to go on a run and score seven or eight. It never happened for him at the weekend. “But that’s why it’s always good to have someone there. He’s scored goals in decent leagues, so hopefully he can come in and be a great asset for the football club. “It will give everyone a lift, the fans, his teammates and that’s what you’re looking for.” If you were the Manager, who would be in your starting line up?
Enough is enough. Something has to force this run to turn around. GK Meslier. RB Ayling CB Cooper CB White LB Alioski/Dallas RM Harrison CM Klich CM Shackleton AM Hernandez LM Costa ST Big Kev Klich and Shak holding with Costa, Pablo, Harrison interchangeable but I would switch flanks to start with. White can step in to midfield when we have possession and release Klich or Shak. That would be my team.
We all know it ain't gonna change but hopefully we'll all be eating humble pie on Saturday evening after a nice result. I'd rip your arms off for a draw but we do seem to do better against teams that want to play so this will be an interesting one. Do Forest go for the plan that works against us or do they come out at us. At least it's not in London! After the next couple of games we could be hiding sharp objects on here. I am very nervous.
A draw is the minimum, for this game, in fact the next 3,need some wins but no defeats, this is where we lost the season last season, losing to both our rivals Norwich and Sheffield utd. Meslier to start for me, and Roberts instead of Pablo, big Kev on at HT for me, unless we are 2 up.
I just looked at the fixtures and all those around us have what look like tough ties. Tough game for WBA against Nillwall. It could be another Cup Final for the Wall! Let's hope it's a draw.
with every game a win becomes more crucial. Win here would give a small breather. Expect same 11 to start as last week
Not a chance Augustin will start and seeing Bielsas comments today which I have posted in the morning debate (Thursday) I would be amazed if he even makes the bench, I don't really expect him to make a start this month if I am being honest. Same starting 11 you can bet your mortgage on it, if it were down to me I would drop Kiko and Dallas from midfield (happy for Dallas to start at RB or LB and I would have Roberts and Meslier starting. I would keep faith with Harrison and Costa but I'd be giving Poveda an appearance with 20 minutes at least to go either way
This Leeds team at its best would beat any team in this league and most in the Premiership. The team has not played badly even in the recent defeats. I have never known any team create so many chances and miss most of them. Lets hope we start taking them on Saturday.Good luck lads.
Will be the same team that started against Wigan and will be the same outcome as against Wigan. Wash , rinse , repeat. Genuine question here what is the point of signing Augustin? Bielsa reckons he's no where near fit so we are probably not going to see him before the end of Feb. If that's the case what's the point unless we're planning for the playoffs. Could just be that after all the bollocks about signing Adams for £20m we've plumped for the cheap option and signed him just to avoid the backlash of not signing anyone.
If you ask Mr Orta I’m sure he will be able to tell you wether you believe him or not is a different matter
Bamford obviously not the worlds best but we are not scoring a lot from other positions recently, either. Any chance Poveda getting on, I wonder.
Don't know? Has he tried Dallas in the Bamford role yet? No one getting in till Bielsa's had a go at that
I'm too frightened to watch. But, if I'm being positive, we beat Forest & Brentford (because we've got a good record in London) we're homeland hosed
I have a sneaky feeling that the primary reason for signing Big Kev was to get him up & running for the PL, the bonus being that he's now in place & can be backup for Bamford / competition for Bamford in the meantime. Poveda is ahead of him in terms of readiness, & I believe will get game time long before Big Kev. I suspect we'll have the same situation with them that we had with Nketiah & Costa - i.e. we can't have 2 players in the team that are 'luxuries', in that they are not fully immersed in Bielsaball & superfit.
Nope, not for me. No where near certain we will be in the PL and think Bielsa would be too humble to think like that let alone sanction a signing for that reason.
