Leeds United face their toughest test of the season to date on Friday as they make the trip to Leicester City.
Having been relegated alongside Leeds in May, Leicester have taken the Championship by storm, winning 13 of their opening 14 matches. The best start in the league’s history.
Leeds have enjoyed a decent start of their own but are already 14 points adrift of the Foxes and will be keen to ensure that gap does not open up even more at the King Power Stadium.
Daniel Farke will probably not want to change too much from the starting XI that hammered Huddersfield Town 4-1 last weekend, but there are certainly a couple of big calls he will have to make.
One of those comes at right-back. Jamie Shackleton was handed his first start since Leeds’ defeat at Southampton in September last time out, replacing Archie Gray.
Farke should recall Gray to Leeds starting XI
With Glen Kamara and Ethan Ampadu now seemingly Farke’s first choice midfield pairing, the only position Gray is likely to start this weekend is at right-back.
And that is exactly what Farke should do at Leicester, with last weekend’s win over Huddersfield handing him a crucial rest, as he remained an unused substitute for the whole 90 minutes.
That break will have handed the ‘phenomenal’ Gray nine days to recover and train back to full fitness, which should stand him in good stead for Friday and mean he comes back into the side.
Having played three 90 minute matches over six days in the international break for England U19s, Gray was visibly leggy in both games at Norwich City and Stoke City.
However, this should not be the case at Leicester. Shackleton did a decent job against Huddersfield last week but struggled against a really tricky winger in Kamaldeen Sulemana at Southampton.
Leeds cannot afford Leicester’s wide players to get into their groove and Gray’s stronger physical frame over Shackleton should give him the edge in Farke’s thinking.
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