Leeds are back in action tonight for the first time in over a week.
Marcelo Bielsa has had plenty of time to reflect and diagnose the issues that have plagued the squad since the beginning of the New Year.
The Whites haven’t won or scored a goal in 2021 yet but they will be hoping that changes when they welcome Newcastle to Elland Road on Tuesday evening.
The vibe around the Leeds camp is already improved from that defeat to Brighton after some positive injury news. Illan Meslier and Diego Llorente are both ready to return after spells on the sidelines.
With that in mind, we’re tipping Bielsa to make as many as four changes to the team that lost last time out.
The first thing to notice is that Kiko Casilla drops out of the team. The Spaniard had a mini-run in the side but after his disastrous game against Crawley where he let two goals through his hands, simply has to be dropped.
That means that Meslier returns. There is a big shift at the back where we’re tipping Llorente to come back into the XI after his cameo for the U23s last week.
As a result, Gjanni Alioski misses out. We’ve already discussed the cons of him starting at left-back tonight so Stuart Dallas moves to the left side and Luke Ayling to right-back.
The other two replacements are in the middle of the park. Kalvin Phillips returns from suspension in place of Pascal Struijk while Pablo Hernandez earns just his third start of the Premier League campaign.
[snack-amp-story url="https://www.footballfancast.com/web-stories/read-this-weeks-latest-leeds-news" title="Read this week's latest Leeds news!"]
FFC suggested Rodrigo should be dropped against Brighton because of the 29-year-old's inconsistent and shoddy displays. Our stance hasn’t changed on that matter.
All in all, this XI of players should give the Whites a strong chance of defeating Newcastle, a team without a win in their last ten games in all competitions.