Leicester City - v - Leeds United ***Matchday Thread***

[BelfastAndy]

TEAM NEWS

Leicester are without midfielder James Maddison, who serves a one-game ban after accumulating five yellow cards.

Captain Jonny Evans is still missing with a calf issue, while fellow centre-back Caglar Soyuncu is ruled out by an ongoing knee problem.

Ricardo Pereira, Wilfred Ndidi and Ryan Bertrand are also unavailable.

Stuart Dallas and Adam Forshaw are long-term absentees for Leeds but Patrick Bamford could come into the starting line-up.

The Englishman replaced fellow striker Rodrigo at half-time in Sunday's defeat by Arsenal and impressed despite missing a penalty.

MATCH FACTS

Head-to-head

Leeds United have won one of their past eight matches against Leicester City in all competitions.

The 20 Premier League meetings have produced nine wins each, with both sides scoring 29 goals in total.

Leicester City

Leicester have five points from 10 games - the only time they have had fewer at this stage was in 1983-84, when they had two points, although they recovered to end 15th that season.

They are at risk of suffering their 100th Premier League home defeat.

The Foxes are vying to keep clean sheets in three consecutive home league games for the first time since a run of four between March and July 2020.

Jamie Vardy has failed to score in his last 10 league appearances, his longest such run since 2016.

Leeds United

Leeds are winless in six league matches, with two draws and four defeats.

The Whites could lose four consecutive away league fixtures for the first time since April 2018.

They have conceded 16 goals in their last three midweek away games in the Premier League.

Patrick Bamford is one short of 100 career league goals.

Bamford has gone 10 consecutive Premier League appearances without scoring since his goal against Brentford on 5 December 2021.

0 - 2.

MOT.

[hopelesslyoptimistic]

Time to convert performances into results - 3 points would see us jump nicely up the league.

[Billyni]

Its not necessarily a must win for Leeds but its a must win for Jesse.
A defeat and he has to go.

[hopelesslyoptimistic]

Its not necessarily a must win for Leeds but its a must win for Jesse.
A defeat and he has to go.

Famous last words but Leicester are not the greatest this year defensively, keeper only decent and not KS.

They have no Maddison either and seem to struggle as much as we have in scoring.

Need to repeat the effort and energy v Arsenal and get early goals and then keep the pressure up.

However much we feel under pressure Leicester must have at least the same amount are at home and fans already calling for BR to be sacked.

[spaldy]

Well, since both of the Team's strikers have not scored in over 10 games it should be a draw. However, given that Vardy's playing against cooper it's likely he'll bag one or get a PK for a shirt pull. Not good for us.

Per my previous thread rant I wonder if we could just have bamrigo lay down in the box somewhere and just have our mids blast it off him looking for a deflection into the back of the net. May be a higher percentage option.

Going on a year now where we go into every game with a good chance we score a goal.... even though we play one of the most agressive and pressing football in the prem. One thing to be like Big Sam and know that you are going to park the bus the whole game and hope for a draw or a fluke goal against the run of play. Another to press hard and go for goals and end up with the same offensive result as Big Sam.

[Monaco_Totty]

Time to convert performances into results - 3 points would see us jump nicely up the league.

We lost to Arsenal for a reason !

The need for a disruptive striker with a dynamic range of mobility that can carry counter-attacks, make incisive movements around the box & strike the ball explosively is 'very apparent' Hopey.


On the bench we've Gnonto signed after playing 24 of his 33 Swiss league games as a substitute - so Gnonto's a proven live-wire at attacking 'tiring defences' in the second-half of games. In fact Willy was the second highest-scoring substitute in Europe in 2021-22.


Yes, Bamford is adept at attacking open spaces but very average at best at generating any shots from varied situations within them.


But post injury, the fact is, we can now only rely on his intelligent positioning & timing of runs in between defenders especially attacking the space between a full back & centre-back.


Willy Gnonto would be the 'intelligent technical' answer for JM's Bamford's predicament as he's a natural support striker which was utilised at FC Zurich in a front two format - so Gnonto is ahead of Joffy for me presently on or off the bench for his presence, goals & pace alone as Harrisons form again is iffy within our unbalanced present tactical narrow setup.

[spaldy]

"Great news". Firpo starting. Jeez Likely that Him and cooper on the left side. what could go wrong. Strujik sitting the bench even though he did OK again one of the faster and talented players on the gunner squad.

Gnoto and Joffy on the 20 man squad. will be great to put them in at the 80th minute and 87th minute even though we'll be goalless.

[Rev72]

A draw would be a poor result.

[UbiqueLUFC33]

On the back of a (generally) good performance against the League leaders against a side that are in the doldrums and will be without their best player by far this should be a shoe in. My only reservations are - Firpo, Barndoor and Firpo.

[UbiqueLUFC33]

We lost to Arsenal for a reason !

Arguably, 2 reasons:

1. Rodrigo's moment of mind numbingly stupid madness.
2. Barndoor's inability to hit a cow's arse with a banjo; even if the cow had an arse the size of Wales and was tied to a post and the banjo was fitted with a precision laser guidance system developed by NASA.