Wayne Rooney has been speaking ahead of his Plymouth Argyle side’s trip to Leeds United.
Plymouth will be looking to secure their first away win of the season under Rooney at Elland Road but would certainly be defying the odds if they were to do so.
David Prutton has predicted a comfortable Leeds win and the league positions of both clubs certainly reflect that, though it is never that easy in the Championship.
Leeds head into the match on a seven-match unbeaten run and can move up to second place with a win, as Burnley are not in action until Sunday afternoon at Millwall.
Daniel Farke will also be buoyed by the return of Junior Firpo after he served a one-match ban at Bristol City following his fifth booking of the season against Watford.
Rooney’s underdog admission ahead of Leeds
Rooney has a poor recent record against Leeds, with his one and only meeting as a manager coming for Birmingham City on New Year’s Day earlier this year.
His Blues sides were beaten 3-0 at Elland Road in what was Rooney‘s last game in charge, and he certainly felt the full force of the Leeds crowd that day.
Things haven’t been much easier for him at Plymouth either, as they currently sit one place outside of the bottom three and have the second worst defensive record in the Championship this season.
Nothing other than a win would be acceptable for Leeds, and speaking in his pre-match press conference, Rooney has acknowledged his side are huge underdogs against a ‘big’ and ‘historic’ club.
He said: “We’re representing the football club, we’re going to try and win. We’ll suffer at times, we have to be resilient and pull together. When we get chances, we need to try and punish Leeds. We’ll be doing everything we can to do that.
“For us, it’s another game. Of course, they’re a big club, historic team, but for us, it’s one of three games we’ve got this week.”
Rooney issues injury update ahead of Leeds
Rooney’s task at Elland Road has not been made any easier by the fact he will be without several key men for various reasons.
Ibrahim Cissoko is suspended following his recent red card at Cardiff City, while Darko Gyabi is also ineligible against his parent club.
And Rooney says Argyle are also set to be without both Joe Edwards and Lewis Gibson, leaving them ‘thin’ on the ground.
He said: “We’re quite thin at the moment. Joe Edwards will be out for a while, he’s got quite a bad one. Lewis [Gibson] will be out until the international break.”
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