£4.6m Leeds United man has to start at Bristol City, even if Daniel Farke has only used him for nine minutes

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Daniel Farke looks set to be forced into making at least two changes to his starting XI for Leeds United’s trip to Bristol City.

Farke kept the line-up unchanged for both matches against Sheffield United and Watford but has once again been bitted by injuries and suspensions.

Largie Ramazani limped off inside 15 minutes of Leeds‘ win over Watford and while the severity of the injury is unclear at this stage, it is unlikely he will be fit at Ashton Gate.

Ramazani captioned an Instagram post with, ‘I’ll be back…’ on Wednesday night and reading between the lines, it certainly feels as though he is set for a spell on the sidelines.

Leeds will also be without Junior Firpo for the first time this season after he picked up a fifth yellow of the campaign against the Hornets, meaning he is suspended.

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Why Farke should start Isaac Schmidt in place of Junior Firpo

Saturday will be the first time all season Farke has to make a change to his back four, with two potential candidates ready to replace Firpo.

Sam Byram and Isaac Schmidt are capable of filling in on both sides of the defence, and so will both be pushing for their first starts of the season.

Farke has used Byram more regularly than Schmidt off the bench when seeing out matches this season, but should give the latter a start at Bristol City.

Schmidt has played just nine minutes of football since joining for £4.6 million from FC St. Gallen, but is a more like-for-like replacement for Firpo in terms of what he can offer going forward.

In his 12 appearances for St. Gallen this before making the move to Leeds, Schmidt scored two goals and provided two assists, showing he can replace that attacking output they will lose without Firpo.

At this stage, Byram may well be the more reliable defensive option Farke can trust out of the two, but Leeds are going to lose a lot of threat down that left side without Firpo and Ramazani. Schmidt would be the best choice to try and replace that.

• READ MORE: Ever-present Bristol City star to miss Leeds United match through suspension alongside Junior Firpo

Simon Grayson predicts who Leeds will replace Firpo with

Simon Grayson was covering Leeds’ win over Watford for BBC Radio Leeds on Tuesday and was asked about the dilemma Farke faces at left-back.

Grayson is expecting Byram to be given the nod ahead of Schmidt due to the fact Farke has used him more off the bench whenever he has made a sub at full-back.

He said: “Yeah you would do [expect Byram to go in] because every time Daniel puts on a sub for a full-back, it is Sam that comes. Maybe Schmidt is just waiting, still trying to understand the English game. I would be surprised if Sam doesn’t start the game.”