Leeds United play host to Yorkshire rivals, and manager Paul Heckingbottom’s former club, Barnsley at Elland Road on Saturday, in the hope of picking up a rare win.
The Whites looked to be genuine promotion contenders in the early stages of the Championship season, but a dreadful run of form leading up to Christmas and then in 2018 has seen them slip to 14th position, and they have nothing left to play for except pride in their final three league games of the campaign.
The Yorkshire outfit suffered a second successive defeat on the road last time out as they were beaten 1-0 by Aston Villa at Villa Park, and Heckingbottom will be glad to get back to Elland Road given both of their Championship wins in their last 19 attempts have come on their own patch – against Brentford and Bolton Wanderers.
The former Tykes boss will already be making plans for next term to ensure that the club doesn’t endure another disastrous campaign like this one, and he will be relatively confident of picking up a result against his former employers given they have the fourth-worst away record in the division.
The 46-year-old manager mixed things up with three changes and a switch to a 4-4-2 formation against Steve Bruce’s men, but he may well be considering making more alterations to his system and personnel following yet another reverse.
Here is how Leeds must line up against Barnsley, ahead of Bailey Peacock-Farrell in goal…
Leeds United were without their preferred first-choice centre-back partnership of captain Liam Cooper and Pontus Jansson in the defeat against Aston Villa, with Matthew Pennington and Paudie O’Connor starting at Villa Park.
While youngsters O’Connor and Pennington impressed, Heckingbottom should look to bring Jansson straight back into the XI against the Tykes after he returned to training during the week, with the Sweden international still an important player for the Yorkshire outfit even if he hasn’t been at his best this term.
At full-back, Stuart Dallas must continue in the absence of the suspended Gaetano Berardi and the injured Luke Ayling, who Leeds fans are horrified could be fighting for his future according to a recent report, with Tom Pearce on the opposite side.
Leeds’ central midfielders have seemingly all struggled for any type of form since the opening weeks of the Championship season, and with January addition Adam Forshaw likely to miss out again against the Tykes through injury, Heckingbottom will once again choose two from Kalvin Phillips, Ronaldo Vieira and Eunan O’Kane.
The former two started at Deepdale and Villa Park and while Phillips hasn’t been particularly impressive, O’Kane hasn’t given his manager too much reason to start him and the Republic of Ireland international should remain on the substitutes’ bench for this one.
With Pierre-Michel Lasogga seemingly set to return to Hamburg at the end of his season-long loan spell with Leeds this summer, Caleb Ekuban has been given an extended run in the starting XI by manager Paul Heckingbottom.
However, the 24-year-old continues to struggle and despite playing up top with Kemar Roofe against Aston Villa last weekend, he was hauled off at half-time in place of Samu Saiz as his boss decided to change formation.
Ekuban looks shot of confidence and should start on the bench against Barnsley, with Roofe playing a lone role ahead of three attacking midfielders in Ezgjan Alioski, Saiz and Pablo Hernandez as the Yorkshire outfit go in search of goals.
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