Leeds United confirm starting line-up v Aston Villa
Marcelo Bielsa has made no changes to the Leeds United starting line-up ahead of his side’s clash against Aston Villa tonight.
An hour ahead of kick-off at Villa Park [9 February], Leeds uploaded Bielsa’s starting line-up and substitutes on their official Twitter account.
Adam Forshaw has returned to the squad after an injury, as has Jamie Shackleton.
It’s an unexpected move by Bielsa to leave Forshaw on the bench as he’s been one of Leeds’ best players this season.
It can also be seen controversial for Bielsa to start Dan James as a striker with Rodrigo as a number 10 and Joe Gelhardt on the bench.
Must-win?
Are we now at the point of the season where we simply must start winning games? If you look down the table, the Premier League’s relegation zone is slowly creeping up behind the Whites.
As it stands, Bielsa’s side has 22 points from 21 games and sit in 15th place. Norwich, who are 18th, are six points behind us and, like 17th-placed Newcastle, have won their last two matches.
Leeds do have a game in hand on three of the bottom four teams but there’s no guarantee they’ll win that and results need to start coming soon.
Injuries have been a major issue this season and if we’d have had Patrick Bamford and Kalvin Phillips available for every game, you wouldn’t be crazy to think we could be in the top-half.
However, Bielsa’s failure to add to the squad in January has left him with all of his cards on the table for the final few months of what has been a frustrating season.
Aston Villa won’t be an easy team to beat with their January additions of Philippe Coutinho and Lucas Digne providing them with a major lift.
If only Leeds had something similar last month to boost their spirits going into a vital run of fixtures.
In other Leeds United news, Michael Owen has predicted the scoreline.