Leeds United will be beat Wolves if they expose these three flaws
Leeds United travel south to the Black Country tonight to take on Wolves in the Premier League with back-to-back wins on the agenda for Jesse Marsch.
The American tasted his first success in England on Sunday when Joe Gelhardt steered in a last-gasp winner at Elland Road against Norwich City and that momentum has to be carried into tonight’s game.
Molineux will be rocking having beaten relegation-threatened Watford 4-0 in their last home game but even in that dominant display, weaknesses exposed themselves.
Bruno Lage’s side might be chasing a European place this season but they aren’t unbeatable nor the complete, perfect side and if Marsch has done his homework, he will have a plan.
This isn’t to say Leeds are the perfect team and Lage will have an idea of how to beat the Whites too but Marsch can only focus on his own team.
One thing they tended to do a lot against the Hornets was condense all of the play into small spaces, leaving huge gaps elsewhere on the pitch.
This should, in theory, be playing directly into Leeds’ hands with the scrappy nature of the players expected to start. Win the fight and you win the game against Wolves.
In the typically modern way, Wolves’ wing-backs like to get as far forward as they can to add numbers in attack.
It may have brought them a goal here as Rayan Ait-Nouri’s cut back ended up in an own goal but that also leaves a lot of space out wide on the counter-attack.
If Marsch is brave enough, he will leave players high and wide when out of possession to try and get the most out of the free space left by the adventurous wing-backs.
One issue they did have at times against Watford was a severe lack of numbers in the box when a crossing opportunity presented itself.
Above you can see only Fabio Silva got himself into the box as Ait-Nouri connects with his cross and that will be easy pickings for the Whites defence.
This should give plenty of encouragement to Marsch and the Leeds players but they have to be at their best to get a result from Lage’s stubborn Wolves.
In other Leeds United news, Mark Lawrenson has predicted tonight’s clash while also giving his opinion on Kalvin Phillips and Liam Cooper.