David Prutton predicts result of Leeds United showdown with Rotherham United for Sky Sports
David Prutton has predicted that Leeds United will return from the November international break with a win, when they face Rotherham United on Friday 24 November.
The Sky Sports presenter believes that Daniel Farke’s side will make it four Championship wins on the spin at the New York Stadium and begin to close the gap to the automatic promotion places, predicting that the Whites will win 3-1.
Leeds have only lost one of their last five matches, while Rotherham parted company with manager Matt Taylor over the international break after a 5-0 defeat to Watford and Prutton believes that the Whites will have too much quality.
Writing in his Sky Sports Championship predictions (23 November) he said: “Rotherham still don’t have a new manager heading into this one, which suggests that parting company with Matt Taylor was more out of reluctance than anything. They had a decent home record under him, it was just on the road where it all fell apart.
“This is a great opportunity for Leeds to put some pressure on Leicester and Ipswich before those two play on Saturday. Five points would be a small gap, and I think that will be the damage.”
Great opportunity
Playing on the Friday night after the international break is both a blessing and a curse for Leeds United. On the one hand, it allows them to close the gap to Leicester and Ipswich, even if only temporarily, but on the other, some players have only had a single training session to prepare.
The likes of Joe Rodon, Ethan Ampadu, Dan James and Wilfried Gnonto have been unable to undergo any real preparation with their teammates and that could well leave Farke’s side slightly rusty when they take to the field on Friday.
But if the Whites have genuine ambitions of returning to the Premier League automatically this season, they have to ensure that they come away from matches against the Championship’s bottom teams with all three points and that includes Rotherham.
Farke’s team should have more than enough quality to breeze past the managerless Millers on Friday, with or without adequate preparation. But this is the Championship and anything can happen, just as it did when Leeds travelled to Stoke.
In other Leeds United news, Graham Smnyth has named two stars that could miss the clash with Rotherham