Jesse Marsch has been quoted by the Evening Post as saying that Stuart Dallas will start against Norwich City at left-back on Sunday. He branded the Leeds ace as “incredibly intelligent”, and is set to replace Junior Firpo.
Leeds suffered a dismal 3-0 home defeat to Aston Villa on Thursday night in only Marsch’s second game in charge. The Whites remain in 16th place, but the likes of Everton and Burnley have plenty of games in hand over Leeds.
Six straight defeats have come their way, and it makes Sunday’s game against relegation rivals Norwich one they simply have to win. Firpo, who was “terrible” against Villa according to Tim Sherwood, suffered an injury.
The ex-Barcelona man is said to have picked up an MCL injury, which saw him withdrawn towards the end of the 3-0 loss. Speaking ahead of Norwich on Sunday, Marsch says Dallas will start at left-back – and praised him.
“With Junior [out], that probably means we’ll have to play Stuart at left-back,” Marsch said. “He’s played right-back. Now we’re gonna ask him to play left-back but he’s incredibly intelligent. A good player.”
Marsch on Dallas: Firpo might have been dropped without injury
Firpo was awful on Thursday night. Often out of position, losing numerous duels, he gave Matty Cash all the time in the world to control the ball inside the Leeds area, and then dived in, allowing the Poland star to score.
If Firpo had not suffered an injury, Marsch would still have had a decision to make. Ahead of Norwich, surely, he would have considered dropping the summer signing, replacing him with Dallas anyway? We will never know.
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