Predicted Leeds United XI to face Sunderland as Daniel Farke hands out yet another full league debut

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Leeds United conclude a busy run of fixtures before the international break with a trip to Sunderland.

Sunderland head into the weekend top of the Championship and so Leeds will have to be at their best to come away with all three points.

That said, Leeds could not really have asked for a worse time to face the Black Cats at the Stadium of Light, as they have won all four of their home league matches without conceding.

Leeds’ squad is also absolutely ravaged by injuries at the moment, with Ilia Gruev likely to miss out after limping off in the first half at Norwich City.

Here is our predicted XI for the match.

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Goalkeeper

Despite criticism at his attempt to sav Josh Sargent’s penalty, Illan Meslier keeps his place in what could be a busy night for him.

Defence

Isaac Schmidt could return to Leeds’ squad this evening but is highly unlikely to be brought into the starting XI, even though Junior Firpo has had to be managed carefully recently.

Firpo will keep his place at left-back and be joined by the same defence that has started every league game together this season, alongside Pascal Struijk, Joe Rodon and Jayden Bogle.

Midfield

Though Farke could not provide an update on Gruev in his pre-match press conference, the short turnaround between the two games this week make it practically impossible for him to recover in time.

With Ethan Ampadu out for 10 weeks, Gruev’s injury comes at the worst possible time for Leeds. Ao Tanaka and Joe Rothwell are now Leeds’ only fit senior midfielders.

Despite being signed to play as more of a number eight, Tanaka is the likely candidate to sit just in front of the back four, with Rothwell finally making a full league debut for Leeds.

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Attack

There had been some hope Manor Solomon would be fit enough for the bench but Farke all but certainly ruled that out on Wednesday.

With Dan James also still not back fit, that means the three behind the striker in Largie Ramazani, Wilfried Gnonto and Brenden Aaronson remains the same, which is certainly no bad thing.

Farke says Leeds will ‘desperately’ need Patrick Bamford over the course of this season but it is too soon after injury to give him a start. Mateo Joseph deserves to keep his place anyway, despite his lack of goals.

Predicted XI: Meslier; Bogle, Rodon, Struijk, Firpo; Tanaka, Rothwell; Gnonto, Aaronson, Ramazani; Joseph