Pontus Jansson has been suspended for the previous two games but may return to the Leeds United side for the Nottingham Forest clash.
Ben Parker has suggested to TV Yorkshire that Leeds United will receive a significant boost by having Pontus Jansson available for their clash with Nottingham Forest on Wednesday.
Jansson has missed the last two games after collecting his tenth booking of the season during the FA Cup win over Cambridge.
Leeds’ Pontus Jansson
And while the Whites put in arguably their best performance of the campaign for the first game of the Swede’s suspension – Leeds, with a back four consisting of three right-backs, beat Derby 1-0 – they followed that up with a disappointing defeat to Barnsley at the weekend.
But the 25-year-old will surely be in contention to come straight back into the team for the game against Forest this week, and Parker believes that, following the Oakwell loss, Jansson’s return has come at the perfect time for Garry Monk.
“It’s a big difference because people like to go off stats, and his win ratio within the team suggests that we’re a better team with him,” he told TV Yorkshire.
“I thought we did fantastically with the performance that everyone still talks about, the Derby performance, but we got found out with the three right-backs playing [against Barnsley].”
With Jansson in the team, Leeds have won 13 of their 21 games in all competitions, and have kept 10 clean sheets along the way.
And with each of Barnsley’s three goals at the weekend coming in the wake of a mistake in Leeds’ defensive third, Monk will be hoping that Jansson’s probable return makes the back four a lot more assured than they were against the Tykes.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
