Leeds United are back in action this Saturday, and with a game against old foes Manchester United in Stockholm.
Leeds United take on Manchester United at the Strawberry Arena in Stockholm this weekend as both teams get their pre-seasons underway, ahead of the two meeting in the Premier League once again next season.
So far this summer Leeds have signed four new players in Lukas Nmecha, Jaka Bijol, Sebastiaan Bornauw and Gabriel Gudmundsson, and before Saturday we could even have a couple more new faces through the doors.
Reports say that Leeds have agreed a deal for Sean Longstaff, whilst Anton Stach’s rumoured move to Elland Road has quickly gathered pace in the last 24 hours.
Do Leeds United have any injuries going into the game against Man United?
Daniel Farke doesn’t have any injury concerns as such, but there are a handful of players who may not feature having had international tournaments to play in this summer.
Willy Gnonto, Mateo Joseph and Brenden Aaronson could all miss the game on Saturday: Gnonto and Joseph played in the U21s Euros tournament whilst Aaronson helped USMNT reach the Gold Cup final, which Mauricio Pochettino’s side lost to Mexico.
Other than that, Pascal Struijk should be in line to return to action after missing the end of last season through injury, with Farke likely to field two XIs for each half of the game.
The predicted Leeds United XIs to face Man United on Saturday
Farke will surely want to use this game to simply get minutes into everybody, so expect the German to name one team for the first half and another for the second.
We may expect to see Farke name something close to his full strength, or what he thinks is his strongest current XI from the off though, with Leeds currently only having three games before the season opener against Everton on August 19th.
As things stand, Karl Darlow is the no.1 and we may see a very different defence to the one from last season, with Gudmundsson on the left and Bijol at left centre-back, with Joe Rodon his partner in the middle and Jayden Bogle on the right.
Ao Tanaka and Ethan Ampadu look like the two holding midfielders set to start, with Dan James, who recently signed a new contract with Leeds United, on the left. But there’s more uncertainty about who plays elsewhere on the pitch.
Should neither Aaronson nor Gnonto feature then Tanaka could even play in the 10 role with Ilia Gruev starting alongside Ampadu, and Farke will no doubt have Largie Ramazani somewhere in attack, as well as youngster Sam Chambers who was spotted in first-team training this week after his injury lay-off.
Expect Nmecha to also be one of the starting strikers in either half, likely the second half.
With depth still an issue for Leeds, especially in midfield and attack, expect a number of players to play the full 90 minutes, unless Farke brings in some youngsters purely to prevent first-teamers from over-exposing themselves by playing the whole 90 of the first game back.
Here’s how we think Leeds United could line up in the first half against Man United…
Darlow (GK)
Gudmundsson
Bijol
Rodon
Bogle
Ampadu
Tanaka
James
Chambers
Ramazani
Piroe
And here’s how we think Leeds United could line up for the second half…
Meslier (GK)
Byram
Bornauw
Struijk
Schmidt
Ampadu
Gruev
Joseph
Nmecha
Ramazani
Bamford
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