Early predicted Leeds XI to face Burnley… One change as Daniel Farke is forced into Brenden Aaronson call

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Leeds United face a huge match on their return from the international break as they host Burnley at Elland Road.

Despite summers of vast exits for both, Leeds and Burnley are many people’s favourites for automatic promotion this season, with the two sides already occupying places in the top six.

Between now and the game in seven days’ time, Leeds still have several players away representing their respective countries.

Daniel Farke will be praying everyone comes back without any fitness concerns considering the potential importance of the fixture, and how injuries to Wilfried Gnonto, Connor Roberts and Ilia Gruev in the March break derailed their promotion push last season.

So, with that in mind, here is our predicted XI for the match.

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Goalkeeper

Illan Meslier is one of just a handful of players not away on international duty and starts in goal on the back of three clean sheets in a row.

Defence

Alongside Meslier, both Jayden Bogle and Pascal Struijk have had a couple of weeks to rest and recover, which will have no doubt done the latter well after making his return from injury last month.

Joe Rodon and Junior Firpo, however, both have matches to navigate before their availability is confirmed, but will start if there are no issues.

New signing Isaac Schmidt could make a matchday squad for the first time since his deadline day move from FC St. Gallen.

Midfield

Farke must have a real temptation to throw Ao Tanaka in for his full debut after an impressive brief outing against Hull City on his debut.

However, it feels unlikely he will break up the partnership of Ethan Ampadu and Gruev on the back of a win, providing they return from international duty fully fit.

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Attack

Attack could be the one position on the field Farke is forced into making a change due to the logistics of Brenden Aaronson’s second game with USA.

They are in action during the early hours of Wednesday morning and given Leeds are playing at Saturday lunchtime, it wouldn’t be a surprise if he isn’t quite right to start.

Providing he has recovered from a hamstring injury, Dan James could take his place in the XI, potentially seeing Gnonto move inside. Manor Solomon and Mateo Joseph make up the rest of the team.

Predicted XI: Meslier; Bogle, Rodon, Struijk, Firpo; Ampadu, Gruev; James, Gnonto, Solomon, Joseph