Well, it’s fair to say that Leeds United’s team news ahead of their game against Manchester City didn’t make pretty reading yesterday.
Grim reading
Marcelo Bielsa confirmed to Leeds Live at his press conference that his side had suffered no new injuries, but none of their sidelined players were set to return this evening.
That means that Leeds head to the Premier League champions without Kalvin Phillips, Patrick Bamford, Liam Cooper, Robin Koch and Pascal Struijk.
That amount of injuries would hurt any team, but it is particularly difficult for Leeds.
Bielsa tends to like to work with a small squad, which means they simply don’t have the strength in depth as many of their Premier League rivals.
As a result, Leeds have struggled to sustain the form that they showed last season in the early part of this term.
And the team news from yesterday’s press conference has understandably caused some concern around Elland Road.
Can Leeds win?
City are not a side who any side would want to take on with injuries mounting.
The positive for Leeds is that their current injury crisis has at least allowed Joe Gelhardt to prove his worth.
Gelhardt stepped off the bench to score for Leeds against Chelsea at the weekend, and it could be that he is backed to start later this evening now.
Leeds actually won at the Etihad Stadium last season, despite only having 10 men on the field, so they have beaten the odds to pull off an upset before.
But the Whites certainly face a real test later this evening if they are to avoid back to back defeats.
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