Leeds United face another tight turnaround to their next Championship match as they make the trip to Blackburn Rovers.
Daniel Farke‘s side made it two wins in a row since the international break with a 3-0 victory over Luton Town on Wednesday, but have no time to rest on their laurels, with another game swiftly following.
Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder has complained about some of the Championship’s scheduling of matches this week and Leeds are one of just the four sides tasked with playing three times in six days.
As such, rotation is going to be important to get through the week without any injury issues and to give Leeds the best possible chance of making it nine points from three.
Given Farke only made one change to his starting XI against Luton, it wouldn’t be a surprise if there were a couple more at Ewood Park.
Farke should consider Joel Piroe change for Leeds
One change you can almost guarantee will happen is at left-back, with Junior Firpo now back from serving a three-match ban.
Sam Byram has filled in admirably during Firpo’s absence, but Leeds have missed the Dominican Republic star in attack and Byram did suffer a minor hamstring injury against Luton.
Elsewhere, Farke could look to change it up again in attack. Dan James was surprisingly dropped on Wednesday but that was a decision that paid off as he came onto score Leeds’ third.
His legs will be fresh to go again and after Manor Solomon picked up a bit of cramp towards the end, that feels the most likely change.
However, Farke should not end the attacking changes there and so the third alteration he should make is at number 10.
Largie Ramazani’s brief cameo on his return in that position at Elland Road was electric but he isn’t yet fit enough to start and so will be used off the bench.
Instead, Farke should consider a positional change for the ‘excellent‘ Joel Piroe and drop him slightly deeper, replacing Brenden Aaronson with Mateo Joseph.
Aaronson has started Leeds’ last 15 league matches and in the main, has been good. However, his output has dropped in recent weeks, and he shouldn’t just be a guaranteed pick in the XI because of his work rate.
Admittedly, Leeds would lose a lot of legs in midfield by dropping him for Piroe, but Joseph’s pressing can make up for that.
Piroe and £900k ace Joseph have also shown some decent signs of link-up play whenever they have had the chance this season, none more so than against Sheffield United in October.
However, they have only had the opportunity to play together for half-an-hour since, giving them very little time to work on that understanding.
As they do in most matches, Leeds are likely to dominate plenty of the ball at Ewood Park and so using them as more of a front two could be an interesting prospect.
- READ MORE: Largie Ramazani tells Leeds United teammate he is a ‘tank’ after latest Elland Road victory
Aaronson stats vs Luton analysed
Aaronson actually had one of his better games in recent weeks against Luton but most fans still left Elland Road feeling slightly frustrated.
He got into a couple of good areas that he didn’t make the most of, with one from the first half springing to mind when he failed to either shoot or find Gnonto.
However, it is the number of times he loses possession, as well as his struggles to win duels that often spring to mind with Aaronson.
| Stat | Aaronson |
| Touches | 60 |
| Acc. passes | 35/41 (85%) |
| Crosses (acc.) | 3 (1) |
| Dribbles (succ.) | 3 (1) |
| Ground duels (won) | 10 (3) |
| Possession lost | 15 |
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