| Opposition Preview - Leeds United (Away) Written by ad_wilkin on Friday, 22nd Dec 2023 10:25 Town have now played 22 of the other 23 teams in the division with Leicester still to come on Boxing Day so I’m switching the structure of these up a bit as I’ve already given a lowdown of most of the squad in the first half. You can find that here. As always comments and feedback are always appreciated. Let me know if there’s anything else you’d like to see in these? Previous Fixture Recap (Ipswich 3-4 Leeds)In what ended up being an end-to-end game at Portman Road, Town got off to a flyer with Joe Rodon deflecting a Kayden Jackson cross into his own net. Leeds then equalised with a fine solo strike from Georgino Rutter, who picked the ball up outside the area, wrestled free from Luke Woolfenden before dribbling away and past Cameron Burgess and firing a low shot past Vaclav Hladky. Leeds then added a second when left-back Sam Bryam delivered a delicious ball into an area of danger, Vaclav Hladky looked to come but then changed his mind and Leif Davis failed to read the run of Wilfried Gnoto, who sneaked in at the far post to tap it home. The Yorkshire side added a third 18 minutes in, Luis Sinisterra using his quick feet to fox Harry Clarke and cut inside to hit a firm shot which Hladky could maybe have held but instead spilled straight into the path of Joel Piroe for a tap-in. A period of Town pressure then took place as the Super Blues pushed to get into the game with Massimo Luongo having a shot cleared off the line and Kayden Jackson forcing a save from Ilan Meslier after Wes Burns robbed Cody Drameh of the ball and set him through. A couple of Clarke balls over the top to Burns resulted in some half chances but nothing that tested Meslier, with Nathan Broadhead also firing just wide. Town finally pulled one back when a horror back pass from Drameh was too short for Meslier and Jackson was the quickest to react, nicking the ball before it got to Meslier and rounding the keeper before calmly pulling it back for Broadhead to finish off and make it 3-2 just before the half-time whistle sounded. An even second half with chances for both sides was ended by Leeds clinically, Ethan Ampadu winning a battle with Sam Morsy in midfield (which was arguably a foul on the Ipswich man), which allowed substitute Jamie Shackleton to pick up the ball and drive into the Ipswich half. Brandon Williams was then left on his heels by Sinisterra’s pace as he raced onto the through ball ahead of the right-back and slotted past Hladky. Town then showed that fighting spirit that has done them so well to continue to push even though the game looked lost and got a consolation goal when Freddie Ladapo’s lay-off found Conor Chaplin on the edge of the box and the diminutive attacker calmly placed a left-footed finish in the corner of the net with his deflected effort kissing the inside of the post.
What’s Changed?When the home fixture was played Leeds were in turmoil. The transfer window was still open, players were on strike and trying to force transfers and the Whites were suffering because of it and yet to win before they visited Portman Road. Surprisingly at the time, they included Sinisterra and Gnonto in their side and both had a major impact on the game. The former, who gave Clarke and Williams a torrid time, has now left the club, joining Bournemouth on loan on transfer deadline day. Other players have stepped up in his absence, especially Crysencio Summerville, who is now on 15 goal involvements this season (nine goals and six assists). Georginio Rutter has finally found his feet and his shooting boots, with Dan James and Joel Piroe also chipping in with good numbers in a frontline that now looks as dangerous as any in the league. The midfield that nullified Morsy and Massimo Luongo so well has also had a switch up with deadline day signing Glen Kamara replacing young Archie Gray, who has made the move to right-back. Ampadu was one of the best players I’ve seen at Portman Road in that position this season and the addition of Karama alongside him should strengthen that midfield and bring a bit more stability with the creative aspect left to the four players in front of them. Defence is where Leeds have been hit the hardest with injuries but they seem to have found a solution to that problem with seven clean sheets so far. Gray was clearly a talented player and has add versatility to his bow not just filling in at right-back but now appearing to make the position his own following injury to Luke Ayling, who was in that spot for the previous meeting. The centre-half partnership of Rodon and Pascal Struijk has largely remained undisturbed and is keeping out fit again captain Liam Cooper. When he’s been fit, Sam Byram, who caused all sorts of problems down Town’s left in the previous meeting has started. Bryam has picked up a couple of niggles throughout the season and was unable to play against Sunderland or Coventry and will also miss this one. Loanee and natural right-back Djed Spence has come in to replace him but is still building up fitness and the same is the case for Junior Firpo, who should be available for this one but hasn’t had much game time recently. In goal, Ilan Meslier has maintained his place despite a -3.42 goals prevented rate which has him sitting 29th in the league currently so it is maybe a surprise that Karl Darlow hasn’t been given a chance, but manager Daniel Farke seems to be keeping faith with the young Frenchman. Leeds now look far more settled in a far better position and have been in good form with nine wins in 11 games coming before the 1-0 defeat against Sunderland saw Town extend their gap over third place to ten points. That lead was maintained despite a derby day draw as Leeds laboured to a 1-1 draw with Coventry.
View from the oppositionNot a celebrity this time but I caught up with friend and Leeds fan Adam Stancliffe to get the lowdown of this Leeds side, how he thinks the season will go and some cautionary tales about being in second place at Christmas. AW: Last season was a bit of a chaotic one. You had Jesse Marsch who didn’t last too long, then Michael Skubala game in to replace him for a few games. He’s now at Lincoln in League One. AS: Yeah Skubala did three or four games including two against Manchester United. AW: And then Javi Gracia came in. AS: For about eight games. AW: And then Sam Allardyce came in as a final throw of the dice at the end, so that was all carnage and no structural thinking around it. Marsch was a departure from Marcelo Bielsa. Javi Gracia was a departure from Marsch and Allardyce was the final Hail Mary attempt, route one, long ball. So you then went down and having had that lack of structure and lack of planning last season must have feared the worst. Going into this season, Farke was appointed by then, but then there was all of this transfer business and the dodgy contracts where you couldn’t really sell anyone but they were all allowed to leave on loan. So what were your expectations at the start of this season? I imagine they were probably a bit lower than they are now? And where you are now, everything seems to have stabilised, you’ve actually got players who want to play for Leeds. What are your expectations now for the rest of the season? AS: Yeah, it was a difficult one because we were relegated last year, and I believe we only won eight or nine games in the entire season. If you fast forward to now, I think we won eight games in the first seven weeks. It was difficult, in the summer it was complete turmoil. You alluded to the transfers there, but on top of that there was also a takeover of ownership. The 49ers came in and took over from Andrea Radrizzani for a 100% stake in the club, so we had the full takeover, ratification, one owner outgoing another coming in. Nothing was moving in terms of transfers or even managerial appointments. We didn’t know what was going to happen to Sam Allardyce, for example, because he was hinting in interviews that he’d like to stay to the shock and dismay of Leeds fans. But until the owners came in, we couldn’t do anything. Once they did come in, we saw 16 departures, some in there that we were upset around. Jack Harrison went on loan to Everton. We were hoping he would stay. We’ve had him before in the Championship and he was excellent. Tyler Adams was supposed to be our captain/vice-captain with Liam Cooper and did actually say in an interview that he’d be willing to get us back to the Premier League and then proceeded to go on strike and leave to Bournemouth. So that was a bit disappointing. And then we had Max Wober. Again, he said he wanted to stay and then went on strike and left. And then finally, as Ipswich fans will know we had Luis Sinisterra who scored the winning goal at Portman Road and looked a fantastic winger at this level. We were hoping he would stay and ultimately take us back up because he was that good but then he also went on strike and left on deadline day. Literally an hour after deadline day finished. They asked for an extension, and he left. So, it was huge turmoil, on and off the pitch, a lot of departures but I think despite this I still believe that the Leeds fanbase were hopeful and optimistic that we would still have enough to see us bounce back to the Premier League. I think this was largely due to the appointment of Daniel Farke. Obviously, he’s got two promotions on his CV from this division already AW: We won’t mention with who he got those with AS: I think he actually won the league twice didn’t he, not just promotion? So having that experience and that manager at this level was a huge boost and did boost optimism in the fanbase, and the signings we actually signed some solid Championship additions. If I look across our squad now, we’ve got Joel Piroe, who scored 20 plus goals last year at Swansea, one of the top goalscorers in the division. We’ve got Ethan Ampadu, who’s a solid Championship player. He’s only young, early 20s but he's racked up about 50 appearances for Wales at international level [exact total is 49], he’s played a lot of international football. AW: I’d say he was your best signing; he was class at Portman Road. Not many midfields have won the midfield battle with Morsy and Luongo, but he pretty much did that on his own AS: Yeah, he’s been absolutely fantastic, and then we’ve got Glen Kamara down from Rangers who’s next to him. Again, he’s an international footballer so we’ve got two internationals playing in centre midfield and they’ve been superb so far. And then we’ve got Djed Spence, who unfortunately has been injured but again he’s got a lot of Championship experience and when he was at Forest, he was one of their best players. Obviously, Tottenham came in an spent a large amount of money of him didn’t they. We’re still yet to see the best of him due to injuries but again great Championship signing. Finally, there’s Sam Byram, he’s played in the Premier League. I know he’s had his problems with injuries, but he’s been an absolute revelation at left-back. I think, for me, automatic promotion was the aim and was the expectation and the start of the season and despite all of that turmoil. And if I fast forward to now I think it’s still the same. We should still be aiming and expecting to get in the top two. Now that might sound a bit strange when we’re ten points behind, but this is the Championship, we’ve been here for many years, most of my lifetime in fact, and we are actually in a freak of a season where Ipswich and Leicester are seemingly on course to break every Championship record going. Which is really weird because as a Leeds fan we’ve always been crying out for normality where we go and get a good manager, who’s good at this level, go out any buy ready-made Championship level players and average two points a game and that will get you promotion. We’ve done exactly that. Leeds never do the normal thing, we go and get Gracia, Marsch, Allardyce, buy these obscure players from across the foreign leagues with no proven experience in English football, but we’ve now done the normal thing that you should do and we’re in an abnormal freak of a season where it looks like it might not work. AW: It’s a bit like League One last season with us, Plymouth and Sheffield Wednesday. All three sides would probably have been top of the league points-wise in any other season. And I saw something that said both Ipswich and Leicester have more points at this stage than that Reading side that blew the Championship away back in the 2000s. So, it is a crazy season. The top four will almost certainly be the top four. Looking through the squads, Leicester have a ridiculous squad, Leeds you’ve touched upon the signings they’ve made, arguably we’re out of position at the moment in terms of the quality of the squad but a think a lot of that is the McKenna effect. I think it will definitely be those four in the top four. AS: Southampton are going under the radar due to the fact they’re in fourth, but they beat us comfortably. They went 3-0 up against us at their place and they were excellent. And they’ve got a proven Championship manager, likes to play good football, like to play out from the back. I have not written them off at all, they could easily make the top two AW: And quality wise they’ve got some great players too, Kyle Walker-Peters, Adam Armstrong AS: Armstrong, yeah, scores for fun AW: Che Adams doesn’t even get in the side sometimes. Okay so what can we expect from Elland Road in terms of style of play? At Portman Road it was very end to end, there was not much defending going on. Has that changed, are Leeds more solid defensively now? I know you mentioned Kamara has come in. He wasn’t in the squad; he hadn’t been signed the first time we played. That’s meant Archie Gray has shifted to right-back. Are you expecting an end-to-end game at Elland Road AS: To be honest with you, it largely depends on Ipswich. Frustratingly for Leeds fans, despite our record at Elland Road being very good, we haven’t actually lost a game there and we’ve only drawn a couple, it’s not actually the most fun to watch because the vast majority of teams to sit back and defend. Coventry at the weekend put 11 men behind the ball and just crowded their own box, just let us have the ball and said go on break us down if you can. And we do actually struggle to break teams down, it’s a bit of a grind to watch. Luckily, we do have players like Summerville and James who do finally get a goal and we’ll scrape a 1-0 and try and keep a clean sheet but it’s not been great and easy on the eye which may sound surprising as an outsider. It's very rigid possession-based and very patient. I know at the beginning of the season a lot of Leeds fans were getting a bit dismayed because we’ve been used to the heavy metal, Bielsa, all-out attack football which is so exciting to watch, throwing everything at it, moving at pace, but Farke is a lot more rigid, a lot more patient, he likes to keep the ball, he wants to play out from the back, he’ll let the centre-backs play it between them, pull teams left and right, play it into Ampadu, play it back, you know and build slowly out from the back. They keep a lot of the ball, they pick and choose when they want to play that final through ball, the risky pass. But we do have pacy wingers, they’re out biggest strength. We’ve got Summerville and James who are both absolutely rapid. We’ve got Georgino Rutter who’s our number nine with Piroe playing just in behind him on paper but in reality, they interchange quite a lot, Rutter will come deep, he’ll get on the half-turn, he’ll hold his man off. He’s very good at holding the ball up, very skilful player. AW: They tend to press as a two as well, don’t they? AS: They do off the ball, yeah. And Piroe will come in behind with the ambition that he’s the one we’ll create the chances for because he’s an excellent finisher as we saw last year at Swansea. I think defensively we’ve been a lot better this year compared to last year. Joe Rodon has come in from Spurs, who has arguably been our best player, absolute rock at the back, he’s been superb. We’ve got Pascal Struijk who is much improved at this level. He’s a player who may have been found wanting on many occasions in the Premier League but he’s only a young player. At the Championship level, he’s been excellent and he’s a very good ball player, a lot of our playing out from the back goes through Struijk. The big gap for us is the full-backs, you alluded to it there with Archie Gray, but we signed Djed Spence who is now back. We’re hoping we’ll see him at right back soon. AW: He’s played left-back the last couple of games, hasn’t he? AS: At left-back, Firpo is injured and Sam Byram is injured. There is a stat flying around that we always win when Sam Byram starts at left-back, he’s been absolutely fantastic. However, when he’s not there our record is very stretchy. The good news for you is that he’s injured. We had to move Archie Gray to right-back and put Djed Spence at left-back, so we’ve got two full-backs playing out of position AW: Although Sam Byram was arguably playing out of position because he’s right-footed, he absolutely tore us apart at Portman Road. His cross for the second goal for Gnonto was him cutting back onto his right foot and delivering in swinging towards the goal as well. Is that a Farke thing? Does he put a right-footed left-back in or is it just because of the lack of options? AS: I think it’s a bit of both. When he was at Norwich he also played at left-back, he had the number three shirt and played left-back every week, which is strange until you actually watch him because he’s superb there. His relationship with Summerville as well. He can underlap, he can overlap, he can actually whip a ball in with his left foot or like you alluded to there he can cut back onto his right and whip wicked balls into the back post where Dan James scored a header last week, for example. We do miss Byram, he has played in the Premier League a lot and it does show. He is a step above but unfortunately for him he’s so injury prone. Farke refuses to play him more than twice a week as well because of that. I think this Saturday that is our big weakness. The full-backs. Not because they’re not good players, they are, but they’re playing out of position, and it does show. If Ipswich come at us, which obviously we hope you will. You’re near the top of the league, absolutely flying. I watched a bit of the Norwich game and you went all out against them. If you come to Elland Road and do that it will be another end-to-end game. We’re very good on the counter, the front four on the counter are devastating. But at Elland Road we never get any space, we’re against teams that just park the bus, so if Ipswich sit back and try and counter us, I think it will be a nervy low-scoring game. However, if you come at us which I’m expecting you to do, might be wrong, it will be another 4-3 end to end game. AW: I’m not sure what we’ll do. So far this season, all of our high-scoring games, the 4-3s the 3-2s, have all been at home. Away from home there’s been lots of tight cagey games, 1-0 Bristol City, 1-0 Southampton, 2-1 Watford. McKenna says he doesn’t set the team up to play any differently away from home. I think maybe it’s just the players going away from home perhaps don’t tend to take as many risks or throw themselves forward quite as much. The away games do tend to be more cagey games from what I’ve seen so far. The other thing is whether he’ll make any tactical changes to counteract Leeds as well. We’ve had a fairly consistent side, but he started Kayden Jackson in the home game for his pace on the press and running in behind. It’s interesting to hear. If both teams look to counter-attack it could be a 0-0. We’ve not had a 0-0 so far this season. AS: I don’t think we have either AW: I was looking through the team. We’ve talked about Archie Gray and we’ve talked about the left-back situation. The other two surprises for me are number one, that Meslier is still in goal looking at his stats despite the fact Karl Darlow is still there on the bench. Obviously Farke trusts him but is that a weakness? Is that something that Leeds fans are a bit worried about or is there just general trust in Meslier despite his bad stats? He’s still only a young keeper. AS: Interesting question. It is interesting hearing an external point of view. With Meslier he is a strange one. He’s often been tipped to replace Hugo Lloris as French number one. He’s that good in terms of his potential. He is so young, especially for a goalkeeper. Last year, for example, despite us having a shocking season and conceding a lot of goals, he actually broke a lot of the Premier League keeper records for the youngest keeper to get a clean sheet, breaking Joe Hart’s record. I think Leeds fans are torn on him. He is a good goalkeeper, don’t get me wrong, and, on his day, he is an excellent shot-stopper and one of his big strengths is his distribution. He’s very comfortable at playing out from the back, which is what Farke wants. So, he can happily get the ball and clip it over the striker's head to the full-back every time, or he can just play short with Struijk, get the ball back, put his foot on it and play. He’s very comfortable playing now, he can throw the ball. His biggest weakness is coming out for crosses. He’s a huge guy but he’s actually quite weak. He’ll often flap and we’ll often see corners put right on him because other teams have identified that as a weakness. I think he is good, he’s solid. We did all expect him to leave in the summer and assumed Karl Darlow was bought as his replacement. However, the transfer window closed and he was still here, much to our surprise. He was linked away for a lot of moves; a lot of clubs were in for him. I think Karl Darlow himself probably expected to come in as the number one, so he was probably a little bit surprised to be sitting on our bench. However, when we played in the cup, we actually played Darlow twice and he actually looked really shaky. He didn’t look great. He did have a chance to stake his claim. He didn’t take it. Meslier looked comfortably better than him, to be honest. You could argue if you target him, put in the crosses, he has got a mistake in him I think due to his age. He is immature, but as a whole he is a good keeper, he’s got huge potential and he’s more than good enough to play in the Championship. AW: It’s a similar thing with Gavin Bazunu at Southampton as well. It you look at his numbers his goals prevented is very negative but Russell Martin’s keeping faith with him, due to the way he plays out from the back. It’s a similar situation at Ipswich as well with Hladky coming in when Walton was injured and again his ball playing is a big feature of how we start attacks and deal with the press now. The other one that surprised me is that Gnoto isn’t really starting anymore, because he was very good at Portman Road, even though we weren’t expecting him to play because of the transfer saga there. But Dan James has come into replace him. Looking at the numbers, James has 11 goal contributions where Gnoto’s only got two. There’s a lot of goals in that front four and I guess it just shows how good James has been to be keeping Gnoto out of the team. AS: Yeah, I agree. Dan James, you’ve got to feel sorry for him if you’ve followed his career path. If you watch the Leeds documentary on Amazon Prime you’ll see that he came to sign on deadline day in Bielsa’s first season when we were in the Championship, three or four years ago now and he even did the photoshoot with the Leeds United shirt, had his number and we sent over the contract to the Swansea chairman to sign. We’d done the photoshoots and everything’s ready to sign, he’s sat in Elland Road and the Swansea chairman decided to ignore it and turn his phone off and he never got signed and he had to go back to Swansea and see out the season there. Then Man United came in for him, which was very strange and unexpected for everyone. How often would you see Man United shopping in the Championship? I think they paid £10-£12 million for him as well. For the Championship that’s quite a substantial fee. Leeds assumed they’d go back in for him in the summer and get him then, but we didn’t. Man United took him. Under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, he was actually a mainstay in the team. He played a lot of football and his numbers were okay for the Premier League but nowhere near the levels you’d expect for a Man United winger. Then Ralf Rangnick came in, he lost his place and he was eventually sold to Leeds United for £25 millions. This is Bielsa’s second season, he was obviously a big fan,and he was very excited to finally get him. However, when he joined, Patrick Bamford and Rodrigo were so injury prone we ended up playing him in the number nine role. If you ever watch James, he’s not a number nine. Yes, he’s got pace but he’s only 5’7". AW: Didn’t he have to play in the nine at the start of this season as well when all of your players were on strike or injured before Piroe signed? Wasn’t it him and Gelhardt rotating in that role? AS: Yeah, we had to. He played up front and he underwhelmed, he was playing against Premier League centre-backs and he was out of position and it was unfair on him. And then in came Jesse Marsch, he changed the whole style of football and we loaned him out to Fulham, which was again unexpected. We thought we’d see him out on the wing in his natural position and instead he’s out the door. I believe he had an indifferent season last year at Fulham, obviously didn’t do enough to make the move permanent and came back after we’d been relegated. Going back to your question, don’t forget we had Harrison, Sinisterra, Summerville and Gnonto all on the books at the start of the season, so where did Dan James fit in? We know he’s not a striker and we signed Piroe and we’ve got Bamford and we’ve got Gelhardt so again he comes back and we didn’t know where he’d fit in or if he'd stay. But, as it transpired, Harrison and Sinisterra left, Gnonto went on strike and so Dan James got his opportunity, he’s played on the wing and he’s grabbed it. He’s been absolutely fantastic. Him and Summerville seem to score or assist in every game. One of them will score or assist and they’re just so quick, frighteningly quick and in the Championship, if you’ve got quick wingers you’re onto a winner. They absolutely tear up the Championship. So, I think it’s a mixture of the two, he’s now in a settled team, he’s playing in his favoured position and I think he’s probably found his level in the Championship. I think it was a step too far for him to step up to the Premier League when he did, especially to Manchester United. Even his Wales stats now, he’s scoring and assisting at international level too. And because of his form and due to the fact Gnonto went on strike he hasn’t been able to find his way back in because how can you drop any of the front four when their numbers are so good. It’s a strange one, Gnonto is still getting in the Italy national team. He’s a full-blown Italian international footballer sat on our bench in the Championship, which is wild because arguably he was probably our best player at times in the Premier League. He scored some fantastic goals, individual goals a tore some really good Premier League full-backs to pieces. He is a good option to have off the bench, it will be interesting having dropped points in the last couple of games, so it wouldn’t be a surprise if we made a few changes. If we do Gnonto will be at the top of that list AW: Especially with the fixtures coming up, the Christmas period is always really hectic, there’s bound to be rotation, who do you think are the ones to potentially stake a claim to come in every now and then? AS: Well, we signed Jaiden Anthony, who we haven’t seen much of yet but when they went up in the Championship, he was one of their best players, so again we’ve got a proven promotion-winning winger on the bench, who can’t seem to get any game time. With Gnonto also on the bench, those two are both going to want opportunities. Patrick Bamford, amazingly, has played for England, he did score 18 Premier League goals in one season, again he’s sat on our bench. Joe Gelhardt apparently had a decent season last year at Sunderland in the Championship, can’t get any minutes. And then we’ve got players like Gruev. He’s a Bulgarian who was in the Bundesliga, came with a big reputation but because we’ve got Gray, Ampadu and Kamara he’s not getting any minutes. We still don’t really know what he looks like but he’s apparently a very good midfielder. I believe he had a connection out in Germany with Farke so he’s highly-rated. So, we have got options. Liam Cooper, our captain, hardly plays now because we’ve got Struijk and Rodon, so we have got a lot of depth on our bench. There are the options there if Farke wants to make changes and they’re not just changes for change's sake, they’re actually quality and often international players and the majority of them have played in the Premier League. However, he’s very loyal to his starting line-up. If he went for the exact same 11 again it wouldn’t surprise me or if he did bring in Gnonto or Shackleton if he’s fit [it was later announced by Farke that he’s not fit], he may come in at right-back or go in at left-back and put Spence at right-back AW: He came on against us at left-back and assisted the last Sinisterra goal. He was very good in that position. AS: Yeah, he can play left-back so that could move Spence to right-back. So, there is a lot of options. It will be very interesting to see if he sticks with the same XI or if he thinks it’s time to make some changes. AW: So that covers the teams. What are your thoughts on Ipswich so far? What were your expectations at the start of the season as an outsider because I don’t think many Ipswich fans were that confident that we’d be where we are. A lot of the press and the bookies were talking about back-to-back but I don’t think that was the general mood with the fans so the current position is still a bit of a surprise and long may it continue. From an outsider looking in what did you think and with your bias you’ll probably say that we can’t, but do you think we can keep up the momentum? AS: Yeah interesting, when I looked at it this season, I looked at who would be our biggest rivals for promotion as that was the aim and the expectation. The big ones for me were the two others that came down and probably Norwich, which you’re going to hate me saying, but they’re always strong in the Championship and they do have David Wagner who took Huddersfield up amazingly. So, I thought those would be the four and potentially West Brom who have got our ex-assistant manager Carlos Corberan and had a good year last year. I thought they would be the big players in the Championship going for the automatic promotion spots. I didn’t, maybe naively, expect Ipswich to be going for automatics. I know they had a very good year last year and actually it was yourself who messaged me saying you think there’s a chance of a back-to-back and I kind of laughed honestly. I was like, the three teams coming down have got such strong squads, I thought it would be very difficult to see someone coming up from League One compete with them. But obviously here we are and, in a word, I think it’s been unbelievable and Ipswich have massively proved me wrong thus far. Obviously, your manager has done a fantastic job and as a Leeds fan I hope a Premier League club comes and takes him very soon and derails your season. Unfortunately, Premier League clubs seem to be reluctant to take managers from the Championship which is a positive for you. I do look at the stats, you are overachieving your xG, in the xG league your actually in fourth place. So, you’re still comfortably in and around that top four. Do I think it’s sustainable? Probably not. I’m not convinced on your squad depth in comparison to the other clubs we’ve mentioned and I think with the Christmas period coming up, you’ve got a lot of games in short succession and don’t forget we’ve been in the Championship for a long time. When we came up under Simon Grayson from League One, on Christmas Day we were second place, we finished seventh, so we’ve been there. We were sat in second thinking we were nailed-on for promotion and we didn’t even finish in the play-offs, so the Championship is a strange league, strange things can happen. Garry Monk’s first season at Leeds we were sat in the play-offs the entire season, mainly in third. Last game of the season we fell out and finished seventh. Bielsa’s first season, we were ten points clear of Sheffield United with about two months of the season left and we finished third, so we’ve seen it many many times at Leeds. You can take nothing for granted, all it takes is a bust-up in the dressing room, a manager being linked with a move away, one of your players wanting to leave in January, losing a couple of games and getting in a bit of a rut. These things can happen and are frequent in the Championship. Obviously, we haven’t seen it yet at Leicester or Ipswich, which has been amazing and if you look at the stats a freak of a season thus far, but I just can’t see it being sustainable, I really can’t. You’re on course to break every record going, in current form both you and Leicester would finish on 100+ points and I cannot see that happening, I really can’t. I do still believe we should catch one of Leicester or Ipswich if not both. That’s not me being biased, I think that’s because we’ve got the manager and the squad to do it. If we don’t do it, it would be disappointing. Your lack of depth or if you lose a couple of games on the bounce. How are you going to react or if the players or manager gets linked with a move away, we don’t know how you’ll react to that yet. I think Ipswich Town have been fantastic, they’re very easy on the eye, I really enjoyed watching them against Norwich, they played some fantastic football. I think your manager has done a superb job and I think he could be on a trajectory right to the top. He will be a Premier League manager one day whether that’s with Ipswich or I’m sure another team will come in for him if not. It’ll be interesting to see his career path but they’ve been a revelation so far and that was definitely unexpected. AW: The January window will be big as well. You talked about how Leeds have been in our position in the past. We were in second under Mick McCarthy and we ended up signing Noel Hunt on a free transfer and Freddie Sears and then dropped off into the play-offs and lost to Norwich in the semis, so the January window could be all important. It depends on what the other sides around us do to and more importantly who leaves those sides. I’m guessing Leeds are in a position where they don’t need to sell any more players, I don’t imagine Leicester will be either, but I don’t think we will be either. I think we’ll be looking at a couple of quality additions and keeping hold of everyone else. AS: We’ve already got Fabrizio Romano trying to sell Summerville saying five clubs are coming in for him in January but I’m taking that with a pinch of salt. AW: Well Sinisterra isn’t getting in at Bournemouth you could get him back in on loan. AS: There are rumours that that could actually happen. Anthony isn’t playing for us so it’s not working for either party so there is a rumour of that switch back, but I can’t see it myself but wouldn’t be surprised if it happened. The only one linked away is Summerville and in terms of the market the only position we’d be in for is probably a left-back. AW: The final thing, the match at the weekend, the score prediction. This is one of the few games that Ipswich are going into where the bookies don’t make us favourites, but McKenna has never been doubled as a manager. The only sides left who could potentially do that this season are Leeds and West Brom who we’ve lost to and Leicester who we’ve not played yet. I can see that continuing, I think he’s such a clever manager that if he does lose, he usually figures it out the next time around, so I think I’m going for a draw, maybe a 1-1, which I’d take. I don’t think we’ll win. I think Leeds are too strong squad wise so I’m going for a 1-1 AS: Interesting. Our home record at Elland Road has been superb, we are unbeaten. I’m hoping Ipswich come out and don’t park the bus and play counter, so we get an exciting game to watch, and it opens up the space and opportunities for our dangerously, frighteningly scary front four. Give them space and they will punish you at this level. When we played Leicester away which was billed as a huge game for promotion, we were excellent. We actually stepped it up in the big game which was a question mark. Farke’s record in the big games when he was at Norwich, he often beat the rival promotion teams as well and seemed to get it right, so we do trust him. I’m going to go for a Leeds win, I think we will step it up and keep our home record going. I expect an exciting game, I think we will punish you on the counter with the space in behind when you come at us. I’m going to go 2-1 to Leeds.
The TeamsIt’s a busy spell coming up with Leeds, Leicester and QPR in the space of six days so rotation is highly likely. Where it will come is the question. For Town Hladky will start in goal. Harry Clarke has done enough for me to keep his place at right-back. With no aerial threat as such to deal with from Leeds, I have a sneaky feeling this could be the first game we see a Woolfenden-Tuanzebe partnership with Leif Davis at left-back. Morsy and Luongo will likely continue in midfield but there are merits to Jack Taylor's long range shooting ability here. I also think this could be a game for Marcus Harness to enable more control of the midfield battle and a bit more of an engine tracking back on the left-hand side so can see him starting with Chaplin, Burns and Hirst. There’s also the Kayden Jackson curveball. McKenna does occasionally deploy a bespoke gameplan and Jackson was a part of that causing the Leeds backline all sorts of problems in the number nine role in the home game.
 For Leeds, Farke has hinted that he’ll make changes over this busy period but I think it’s more likely that that rotation will come in later games rather than this one. I’m going for an unchanged Leeds side.
Action AreasThis is very much going to be a battle of the front fours much like the original fixtures. Between them it’s 51 goal contributions for Leeds (Summerville – 16, Rutter – 13, James –11, Piroe – 9, Gnonto - 2) v 43 goal contributions (Chaplin – 14, Hirst –12, Broadhead – 10, Burns- 4, Hutchinson - 3) for Ipswich. Add in Leif Davis’s nine assists and Town lead the way by one.
 Defensively both clubs are similar. Both keepers have seven clean sheets with Hladky having conceded four more than Meslier (26 to 22) so logic dictates that this will be a game that goes down to the fine margins. One of those big areas where margins can be gained is the midfield battle. The match at Portman Road was one of very few games this season where Morsy and Luongo were second best with Ampadu and Gray winning that battle on the day. If Town are going to get anything in this one, those two are going to have to step up their game. It will be interesting to see if McKenna brings one of Harness or Taylor into the left ten position to help more defensively in that midfield battle this time round. Both teams will looks to press high. So far this season Town and Leeds are the top two for tackles in the final third and a lot will come down to which press forces the most individual errors. In terms of individual battles, Summerville against Clarke and Burns against Spence are the two to watch and those areas are where both sides could get their joy.
 As mentioned in the interview with Adam, I think this will be another cagey away game with not a lot in it and I'm definitely sitting on the fence with a 1-1 draw. It will all come down to which side makes the least individual mistakes. Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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