Leeds United will be looking to continue their excellent run of form when they face Southampton on Saturday.
The Whites make the long trip to St. Mary’s having picked up seven points in their three matches since the international break, while also keeping four successive clean sheets.
Daniel Farke made four changes to his starting line-up against Watford last weekend and is now faced with a number of selection headaches going into this game after arguably their most complete performance of the season.
One of those dilemmas comes at right-back, with Jamie Shackleton having been handed a start there on Saturday ahead of Luke Ayling.
Ayling was handed a rest by Farke against the Hornets having started all of Leeds’ previous seven league matches, but he should not win his place back that easily.
Farke should start Shackleton over Ayling for Leeds
On the whole, Leeds felt much cleaner defensively and offensively down the right against Watford and Shackleton was a key part of that.
Ayling has not enjoyed his best start to a season in a Leeds shirt and understandably, does not physically look like the same player of two years ago.
Though he did look a little jaded towards the end, Shackleton looked like a mark improvement on Ayling, with Watford’s only real chance of the game coming in stoppage time after the latter had come on and been dribbled past inside the area.
Shackleton also looked to have a much better understanding with Dan James going forward, with the two frequently exchanging neat little passes down the right flank.
It will take a big call from Farke to leave Ayling out of the starting XI once again, but he should give some serious consideration to starting the player he hailed as ‘unbelievable’ only last month.
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