McCarthy Has Selection Dilemmas Ahead of Leeds Clash Friday, 5th Dec 2014 15:52 Town boss Mick McCarthy has plenty of selection options ahead of Saturday’s home game against Leeds at Portman Road. While Noel Hunt is unavailable against his parent club and Luke Hyam and Jonny Williams are still injured, Christophe Berra is back from a ban and Kevin Bru and Teddy Bishop from knocks. McCarthy is particularly pleased that Bru, who turned his ankle at Bournemouth, and Bishop, who had been suffering with a hip flexor problem, have added to the numbers available in midfield. “I’ve got loads of them this week!” he said. “We’re quite strong in midfield but suddenly we were down to two. “We kept looking around and looking at the bench and seeing if there was a midfield player there and there weren’t any. But they’re all back, they’re fit except Luke Hyam. “Luke injured his achilles last week and it’s just still a bit tender. He’s out but everybody else is OK. He should be OK for Bolton next week. “I think he was hoping he’s be fit this week but I said to him that I wasn’t even going to consider him anyway so to just leave it. He was still having treatment yesterday and he said to me today that it wouldn’t have been right. “I just want to take him out of that and not to rush him back and just say to him if he can get back for Bolton I’d be delighted.” McCarthy says loanee Williams, who has been undergoing treatment on his groin back with his parent club Crystal Palace, could return to action with the Blues before his spell is up. “I hope so, I’m not sure of the exact date of his loan, I think it takes us to the Charlton home game,” he said. “If he’s fit and he’s OK and we can have him back, then that would be great. But they’ve got a recall on him anyway. “At the moment he’s still injured, he’s running, he’s getting back training, so we’ll see. We’ll just monitor that.” McCarthy is likely to stick with Bartosz Bialkowski in goal but has decisions to make in his defence. The Town boss confirmed that Berra would come back into the centre of the defence - "It’s not a difficult decision putting Christophe Berra back in, that’s for sure" - probably alongside Tommy Smith with skipper Luke Chambers moving out to right-back and Jonny Parr dropping to the bench. Arsenal target Tyrone Mings will continue at left-back. McCarthy may well revert to his more regular three-man midfield with Cole Skuse likely to keep his place. The Town boss may decide to bring both Bru and Bishop back for Jay Tabb and Paul Anderson, while Stephen Hunt could move into the front three with David McGoldrick and Daryl Murphy. If McCarthy opts to stay with the four-man midfield he utilised at Charlton, Hunt and Anderson will take the wide roles with Bru perhaps getting the nod in the centre with Skuse. The Town boss says he has been impressed with what he’s seen of Leeds, particularly last week’s 2-0 home victory over Derby. “It was a great three points for all of us!” he said. “It was a great win, they played well. Steve McClaren, who I really like and admire his honesty after games, he came in and said ‘It wasn’t our day, they were better than us, they deserved to win, we wouldn’t have scored if we’d been out there until midnight’. “I really admire that, that refreshingly honest view. He wasn’t being disparaging about his own team and not complimenting Leeds, he said they played well. I’ve watched it and it was a good performance.” Leeds manager Neil Redfearn has impressed his Ipswich counterpart. “It’s a big job for anybody," McCarthy added. "It’s been proven. He was there before for four games and I think he won three and drew one of them. “He’s been there a long time as an academy coach and so he’s proved he can do the job and finally they’ve given it to him, and he’s doing fine. “His team are working hard, they look well organised, the two games that I’ve watched they’ve been pretty impressive, I have to be honest.” He says players don’t tend to get affected by off-field matters, such as Leeds owner Massimo Cellino’s disqualification from owning the club earlier this week: “It bothers them when they’re getting beaten because they can use that as an excuse. “When they’re winning and they’re just getting their cheque every month or whenever it is, I don’t think it bothers them. “If they’re being treated all right within the football environment, which is what really matters to them, and the other things are not affecting them, I don’t think it bothers them.” McCarthy was a Leeds fan as a boy but says that’s all but behind him these days: “I’m not a Leeds fan now. I still like to see them doing well because there’s always a bit of you that is, but I’ve just played against them so often. “As a professional you leave that far behind, your support for another club. I certainly have. The only team I support is Ipswich, the U21s and all the other teams.” Leeds boss Redfearn has revealed he may be forced into one or two changes with a couple of unnamed players having picked up niggles. "We’ve got a couple of lads that are injury problems but whether they’ll be alright or not for Saturday, I don’t know,” he told the Whites official site. "There might be a couple of changes but the ideal scenario is to keep a settled side and get them used to one another and get them used to winning together.” Redfearn insists that his players haven’t been distracted by the off-field issues: ”We just get on with it, we work hard in training. We make sure the lads are focused and we’re planning in the right way towards the next game which is Ipswich. "I think it’s important that they stay focused, that training is enjoyable through the week and they look forward to coming in and working. "They know that at the end of the week they can go and compete and genuinely fight for points. That is the process that we’re going through at this moment." The Leeds manager is expecting a difficult afternoon: “He’s done brilliant has Mick McCarthy. They’re having a great season and Mick’s trying to put a side together. “They had a season where he got his feet under the table and now they’re producing what he wants them to produce. It’s a typical Mick McCarthy side. It’ll be a tough game for us.” He admits Town will have some inside knowledge of his side with Noel Hunt at the club on loan: “To be fair to Noel, bless him, it wasn’t for the lack of effort. He really tried hard every day in training. “He’s got insight into how I work and what our lads will be about, so he will be able to tell them what to expect, I would have thought,” Historically, Leeds have the superior record in the fixture, winning 29 (28 in the league) clashes between the teams. Town have been victorious on 24 (19) occasions and 20 (17) games have ended in draws. Leeds are currently 15th in the Championship, 11 points behind Town. They have lost all their last five away games, aside from a 1-1 draw at Norwich. The sides last met at Elland Road in January when David McGoldrick netted his 14th goal of 2013/14 in a 1-1 draw. McGoldrick opened the scoring on 57 but the home side equalised five minutes later via a Ross McCormack penalty, Luke Chambers having fouled Cameron Stewart, who was on loan with the Whites from Hull City. At Portman Road in August last year, Leeds came from behind to beat the Blues 2-1 and inflict Town’s first home defeat of the season. McGoldrick put Town ahead with his first goal of the season during a dominant opening spell but the Whites hit back via Luke Varney and McCormack either side of half-time to win in Suffolk for the first time since September 2001. Prior to last year’s game, the Whites had had a player sent off on each of their previous four visits to Portman Road. Blues winger Stewart made nine starts and two sub appearances for Leeds during the second half of last season. The move was expected to be made permanent in the summer but the Whites pulled out of the deal and the 23-year-old subsequently joined Town. Unavailable loanee Noel Hunt made 14 starts and six sub appearances in an unhappy 17 months at Leeds prior to his move to Portman Road 10 days ago. Blues assistant manager Terry Connor was with his hometown club between 1979 and 1983, scoring 22 goals in 108 games. Former Town skipper David Norris is the only man in the Leeds squad to have played for the Blues. Norris left Portman Road on a Bosman for Portsmouth in the summer of 2011 after making 114 starts and four sub appearances, scoring 16 goals. He joined Leeds in the summer of 2012 but is firmly out of the first team picture, having made just one Capital One Cup appearance both this season and last season. Prior to kick-off, the players of both teams will take part in a unique group photo as part of football’s tribute to the Christmas Truce of 1914. Fans will have limited access to Portman Road itself prior to the game and the road will be closed for a short period at the final whistle with a large proportion of Leeds’ 1,800 following arriving by coach. Spaces in the Cattle Market Car Park will be reduced as a result. Supporters have been advised to arrive as early as possible with Town anticipating a crowd of around 22,000. Saturday’s referee is Premier League official Mike Dean from the Wirral, who has shown a not insignificant 57 yellow cards and four red in 12 games so far this season. Coincidentally, Dean’s most recent Town match was last season’s home game against Leeds in which he booked one of the visitors and no Blues player. Squad from: Bialkowski, Gerken, Chambers, Parr, Mings, Berra, Smith, St Ledger, Clarke, Skuse, Bru, Tabb, Bishop, Ambrose, Anderson, Henshall, S Hunt, McGoldrick, Murphy, Sammon, Bajner.
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