Leeds United welcome Crystal Palace to Elland Road this evening with Marcelo Bielsa having plenty to ponder ahead of kick-off.
The Whites have just two wins to their name this season but have a fixture tonight against Crystal Palace they will know they could do with picking up maximum points from.
There is a lot that Marcelo Bielsa will have to consider regarding his starting lineup after a less-than-convincing draw away to Brighton last time out.
In terms of the striker department, it’s been a case of finding the best of a bad situation with Patrick Bamford sitting out in the last eight games.
He returned to action last night for the under-23s in their defeat against Manchester City, where he completed 90 minutes and was unfortunate not to get on the scoresheet when his 20-yard stunner was ruled out for offside.
Playing a full game just 24 hours prior to tonight’s clash with Palace means he’s highly unlikely to start – even if he came through it unscathed.
The Athletic’s Phil Hay has since offered insight into whether the Leeds number nine will be in line for a return today, as he responded to the question in a pre-match Q&A:
“It wouldn’t be like Bielsa to launch him straight into the team tonight (it’s possible he might be on the bench but unlikely I’d say). So Brentford might be his time.”
I think it would be very naive at this point to force him back into the lineup right away.
Even giving him minutes from the bench would be out of Bielsa’s character, but it might be a case of needs must tonight.
We need to win really and having Bamford in our squad gives us a much better chance of doing so.
We have options that are worth calling upon other than Bamford, with Rodrigo and Dan James both showing they could be worth starts.