It’s Groundhog Day for Leeds United as they again stumble in the automatic promotion race for the second season running. They are still in the top two, but have won just one of their last five games, and Sheffield United and Burnley appear to have wrestled away the momentum. Leeds are now in need of a desperate win ahead of visiting a rejuvenated Luton Town on Saturday.
Daniel Farke is under pressure as his Leeds United players flounder in the promotion race, and anything less than a win at Luton on Saturday would be seen as a disaster.
However, new manager Matt Bloomfield has got his side winning games, and the team are fighting hard to avoid relegation from the Championship this season.
Luton sense weariness in Leeds and believe it’s a winnable game for them at home. Their squad have also been reinforced by the return of key players from injury.
Triple injury boost ahead of the Leeds United clash
Luton have won three of their last six league games, including an away win over Hull City last weekend. They are coming into the Leeds game with momentum on their side.
More importantly, the Hatters have three important players back in the team and all are expected to start against the Whites on Saturday.
Centre-back Reece Burke started against Hull at the weekend, having not played a game since their 3-0 defeat against Leeds at Elland Road, and even Amari’i Bell was in the team despite picking up an injury on international duty.
Winger Tahith Chong returned to the scheme of things as well when he played 45 minutes in the 1-0 win over Hull City.
The trio are expected to be in the starting eleven when Leeds visit Luton on Saturday.
Leeds star must believe they are far better than Luton
The Whites are not in form, and the performance against Swansea underlined the fact that several players are struggling for rhythm at the wrong time of the season.
Leeds need something to spark them back to life, and the challenge for Daniel Farke is to ensure that the confidence doesn’t drop any further this week.
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Whether the Leeds boss makes changes to his team against Luton is still up for debate. However, the players on the pitch need to take ownership of their individual performance.
On paper, Leeds should beat Luton, and the players need to have that confidence when they step on the pitch this weekend. However, they cannot shy away from a scrap if the game develops into one.
Leeds need to realise it takes more than playing beautiful football to get results at this stage of the season.
