‘A chance’: Daniel Farke says Leeds player could return to starting XI today, he’s ‘so important’

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Daniel Farke says Luke Ayling could return to Leeds United’s starting XI against Queens Park Rangers tonight.

Farke was speaking in his pre-match press conference on Tuesday, where he was asked about the prospect of Ayling starting after his lack of involvement recently.

After starting all of Leeds‘ first seven Championship matches, Ayling has been named on the bench in both of the last two.

Against Watford, Ayling came off the bench to play the final few minutes, before then being an unused substitute in Saturday’s 3-1 defeat at Southampton.

Jamie Shackleton has been the man chosen ahead of him at right-back and after a solid display in the win over Watford, struggled to cope with Kamaldeen Sulemana at St. Mary’s.

Farke says Ayling could return to Leeds XI

With Bristol City to come on Saturday after tonight’s game against QPR, rotation is likely from Farke and the Leeds boss insisting Ayling remains very ‘important’ to his side.

He said: “Well Luke is always the topic [of selection] because he has done well so far. So yeah he was also involved in many good games. Scored important goal in our last home game and he’s one of our leaders and yeah, due to the workload at the moment, when you have three games within seven days, and suddenly it’s not 22 anymore so you also have to keep this in account.

“We have some good players and some good options and we need all the players. Luke like all the others have a chance to be very involved. He’s so important for us as a group. So not just on the pitch, but also off the pitch and we are very happy to have him.”

There is no doubt Djed Spence will become Leeds’ first choice right-back once he returns from injury, but for now, Ayling is needed.

Sam Byram is unlikely to be able to play 90 minutes in both matches and so Ayling will be paramount to Farke being able to manage his workload.

It would not be a surprise to see Ayling start both of the matches this week, with Shackleton and Byram rotating on the other side.