Leeds United will be hoping to make it five wins in a row in the Championship when they travel to St Andrew’s.
Pablo Hernandez and Andy Lonergan are the only two players within the current Leeds United squad who were alive the last time that the Whites managed to win five league games in a row in the second tier of English football.
Club legend Billy Bremner was manager when Leeds last achieved that feat. And while Thomas Christiansen is nowhere near securing the same status as the great midfielder, he is certainly earning plenty of plaudits for the job that he is doing at Elland Road right now.
The Boxing Day win over Burton Albion saw Leeds go fifth in the Championship, and should they win against Birmingham on Saturday, they will match what Bremner’s men achieved 30 years ago today by beating Middlesbrough 2-0, and make it five victories on the bounce in the second tier.
With Leeds in such fine form, Christiansen may not be looking to make too many changes to his side, but perhaps there may be a couple of players who will come back into the team.
Ronaldo Vieira bagged the assist for the winner at the Pirelli Stadium with a sensational through ball for Kemar Roofe, but he picked up a knock in the same game after a nasty challenge, so perhaps Christiansen will look to revive the partnership between Eunan O’Kane and Kalvin Phillips in the middle of the park that proved so influential during the early weeks of the season.
Meanwhile, Samuel Saiz may come back from injury despite not featuring in either of the last two games. Both Pawel Cibicki and Gjanni Alioski were not quite as effective against Burton so either may perhaps be rested, but we expect the former to potentially drop down to the bench to probably come back in on New Year’s Day when Leeds face Nottingham Forest.
With that in mind, here is the squad we expect in full…
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