Mark Lawrenson predicts Leeds v Aston Villa score
Mark Lawrenson predicts Leeds United will win against Aston Villa when the two sides meet at Elland Road on Saturday evening.
Both sides could be without key players this weekend with Leeds’ Kalvin Phillips sidelined with an injury and Villa star Jack Grealish also set to miss out.
Lawrenson believes both teams will miss those players but suggests Villa will miss Grealish more after how poorly they played against Leicester last time out.
“Leeds were really strong against Southampton in midweek, and won without Kalvin Phillips in their team,” Lawrenson wrote on the BBC Sport website.
“The only other time that has happened this season came when they beat Aston Villa in the reverse of this fixture in October. Phillips is still injured and I am going for the same outcome again this time.
“I’ve talked before about how Phillips knits Leeds together and they are not the same without him – well, we found out what Villa are like without Jack Grealish when they lost to Leicester at the weekend. They looked ordinary against the Foxes.”
We’re the better side
Take Grealish out of Aston Villa and you end up with an average squad of players and a manager who’s relied heavily on someone who’s too good for his club.
Take Phillips out of Leeds and you have a closely-knit bunch who’ve come on leaps and bounds up a manager who’s one of the best at what he does in the world.
Leeds beat Villa easily at Villa Park and since then, we’ve got better and they’ve probably got worse – especially with Grealish injured.
We have to agree with Lawro’s prediction here but we’re anticipating a good match in which both teams could get on the scoresheet.
Yes, Villa’s attacking threat is dampened without Grealish but they can still score goals through players like Ollie Watkins.
Our defence has been sketchy at times so we’ll see how the back-line performs versus the West Midlands outfit.
But going forward, we should be able to cause some damage through the likes of Raphinha and Patrick Bamford.
In other Leeds United news, there’s been an update on Leeds’ pursuit of this Serie A centre-back.