Marcelo Bielsa’s men seem to be in trouble as they still look for their first win of the season in the Premier League
Leeds United presently sits in 18th place in the English top-flight with three draws. Their points score took another major hit last week after a last-minute winner by Michael Antonio for West Ham.
The Whites’ backline was missing four possible starting options with Robin Koch, Diego Llorente, Pascal Struijk, and Luke Ayling injured or suspended.
Leeds will now play Watford on Saturday and they will be happy to hear that Struijk will be back in action after completing his red-card suspension as well as winger Jack Harrison being fully recovered from Covid-19.
😬 Fulham fans: "Who are ya?"
😎 Joe Gelhardt: "That's who!" pic.twitter.com/3w0cAcB852— Leeds United (@LUFC) September 22, 2021
Manager Bielsa has now spoken about some of the other injury concerns at a recent press conference.
Defender Llorente has been missing since he limped off early against Liverpool this month. He has confirmed that this muscular injury in his leg will not be a long-term problem and a decision will be made tomorrow if he will tog at the weekend.
Fellow center-back Koch has been missing since he sustained a pelvic injury in the first game of the season against Manchester United. Bielsa spoke last week that the German was not ready to play against West Ham and it is unlikely that he will be ready for Saturday.
Luke Ayling is one of the defenders that has shown promising signs of recovery this week. He missed a full week of fixtures after getting a knock against Newcastle. He will be expected to make his return against Watford in three days’ time.
Brazilian winger Raphinha is another doubt for the weekend. The manager confirmed that he had a pelvic issue in St. James’ Park and the boss will want him to rest. He might be seen coming off the bench with Daniel James and Harrison able to cover for him.
Leeds’ starman Patrick Bamford missed last week’s game after being in a tough collision. With the lack of replacements in his squad, Bielsa will want to mind Leeds’ top goalscorer last season.
Lastly, the Spanish boss confirmed that Forshaw has sustained a new injury after appearing for 35 minutes against Fulham, this will put the team leader out for a few more weeks.
Leeds will be without Patrick Bamford tomorrow. He’s played in 89/90 of our recent league and play-off matches, scored 19% of our goals & is our top scorer under Bielsa (44/232). You’d have to go back to Dec 29th 2019 (4-5 win at Birmingham) for our last league game without him. pic.twitter.com/guxCK9CFYW
— LUFCDATA (@LUFCDATA) September 24, 2021
All the problems may worry Leeds fans as they languish in the relegation zone. This could be another tough week as they face an exciting Watford team.
For more in-depth and up-to-date football and Premier League news, click here.
