Daniel Farke right to make brave Leeds United team news call v Swansea
Daniel Farke needs to get Leeds United back to winning ways against Swansea City this weekend, with Elland Road entirely expecting a routine win.
Farke has made two changes to his Leeds side on Saturday afternoon (29 March), as March rounds off and becomes a crucial April very soon for the Whites to rubber-stamp their promotion bid.
Sheffield United’s win over Coventry City on Friday night has applied more pressure to the Whites to get the job done, as several stars meet their former club from South Wales.
It started perfectly, with Brenden Aaronson opening the scoring within a minute.
Leeds United duo dropped for good reason
The most controversial pick, as far as Leeds fans are concerned, against Swansea has been the retention of Aaronson in the starting XI over Willy Gnonto.
The Italian winger picked up a minor issue on international duty with his nation’s Under-21s, just when many supporters in West Yorkshire wanted him to be given a starting role in the 10 slot over Aaronson.
The out-of-form American has not scored since 29 December, incidentally, the last game Gnonto started for Farke when they faced Derby County and won late on at Pride Park.
Aaronson ended that immediately, though, just when the talk was at an all-time high.
Elsewhere, Junior Firpo and Ao Tanaka were both dropped to the bench and replaced by Sam Byram and Ethan Ampadu.
With two adept replacements, including the club captain on standby, Farke has seen it right to take Firpo and Tanaka out of the firing line following their recent international exploits.
Both endured long journeys over the past few days, with Firpo in the Caribbean representing the Dominican Republic and scoring a penalty against Puerto Rico, and Tanaka in his homeland of Japan.
Farke can give the duo an extended rest period, which is certainly the right decision with their respective importance to the run-in to secure promotion back to the Premier League.
Elland Road will not settle for any fewer than three points
Many consider Leeds to beat Swansea as the Championship’s biggest banker of the weekend, but we all know that’s not even close to how the second tier works.
Swansea know that they are massive underdogs and will seek to use that freedom from expectation to their advantage to fully establish themselves out of the relegation fight.
| Leeds player | Appearances for Swansea |
| Joel Piroe | 96 |
| Dan James | 39 |
| Joe Rodon | 54 |
Joel Piroe, Joe Rodon and Dan James all meet familiar faces as the trio start against their former club.
Farke has to be spot-on with every decision between now and the 3 May finale to make sure Leeds are one of the two not to escape the automatic promotion spots.