19th-placed Leeds United welcome 3rd-placed Newcastle United as they look to remain in the fight for Premier League survival.
The Yorkshire club are currently two points off safety, with Everton’s and Nottingham Forest’s win on this week’s Bank Holiday Monday seeing the two sides leapfrog Leeds.
For Sam Allardyce, this is just his second game in charge of the club, and first game at Elland Road. While his side looked much more defensively sound last week against Man City, there is still much work to be done if they are to claim three points, something they have not done since the 4th of April.
When Allardyce spoke to the media on Thursday, he highlighted the strength and determination of the display at Man City as well as the need to score first in a game against Newcastle that they cannot afford to lose.
Team News
Allardyce confirmed in his press conference that defenders Liam Cooper and Stuart Dallas are still out, as well as United States international Tyler Adams and Colombian winger Luis Sinisterra.
Allardyce confirmed the unfortunate news for Leeds fans that Adams is out for the remainder of the season, in contrast, there was positive news for Cooper with the defender set to return next week.
For Allardyce, one of the most important things going into the final phase of the season is to keep his squad fit.
“I think that we’ve got to try and keep everybody fit if we possibly can. I think the squad in general at Leeds is a bit light in terms of numbers. So we have to be very protective of not picking up too many injuries, otherwise, it does deplete the squad”
“Of course, what’s even more important today than ever is having quality subs, the best quality subs you could possibly get because you need to use them. When you need to, you need to make the decision to use them…I thought we did okay with our choices last week because we seemed to, as we made more substitutes, didn’t waver and improve somewhat and fresh legs and a bit more spirit and a bit more quality.”
In the City game, the former England manager chose to utilise all five substitutes, with Rodrigo coming on to halve the deficit with a late goal, while record signing Brendan Aaronson looked more lively after being somewhat out of sorts for a large part of the season.
One man, Allardyce is yet to call upon is Georginio Rutter, Leeds’ big signing of the January transfer window, signing for £25 million from TSG Hoffenheim. However, the midfielder has made a dismal start to life in Yorkshire making just 10 appearances for Leeds, with just one of them being a start in Leeds’ 1-0 loss to Chelsea.
On the defensive display at City
Going into last weekend’s game away to Manchester City, the concern for Allardyce was very much on whether he could tighten up the gaping holes in Leeds’ backline.
Allardyce chose to sideline both Pascal Strujik and Robert Koch in favour of a backline of Junior Firpo, Max Wöber, Rasmus Kristensen and Luke Ayling, with Illan Meslier also sidelined for Joel Robles in goal.
Allardyce’s personnel changes were rewarded, with Leeds, who have conceded the most goals in the league this season, managing to limit City to just two goals, who are the highest scorers in the league this season.
“I think I saw a fight, a determination and then the ability to improve the performance overall compared to what they produced in the first 45 minutes and think that having conceded 20 goals in the last however many games, I thought keeping Man City down to two was in the end not too bad.
“We scored a goal, we looked better in the second half and a bit of work with attacking and defending and attacking with the players this week hopefully improves their level of performance to get to a higher standard on Saturday.”
In addition, Allardyce highlighted the importance of keeping a clean sheet, with Leeds scoring and shipping goals all season.
“Every game means a clean sheet. The negative rubbish around clean sheets is bizarre for me. Because every successful club has the best clean sheet record, and the best defensive record.
I just had that conversation with Eddie Gray today and he said there’s only one way you get out of it Sam, like we did at Leeds when we didn’t play so well, we made sure we got a clean sheet. So if you don’t listen to me, listen to Eddie Gray. And if you don’t listen to me listen to Pep and if you don’t listen to me listen to Alex Ferguson because they all win the league with the best clean sheet record.”
On the importance of the first goal
While Allardyce’s Leeds will aim to stop the attacking threats of the likes of Jacob Murphy, Callum Wilson, Alexander Isak and Allan Saint-Maxim at one end the other end of the pitch will be just as important if they are to get a positive result.
“It (a goal) depends on our quality then when we get to the final third and what we decide to do with that final ball. If we don’t get the ball right, we won’t create as many chances we would like to put Newcastle under pressure and hopefully have something to go forward with because I’d like to score the first goal if possible.”
With the importance of the first goal being demonstrated by the fact that in the last six times out of seven that Leeds have picked up points, they have hit the back of the net first.
“That’s very important for us on Saturday. Getting the first goal would be a big lift. It would help us win the game. I’m not saying we would win the game but going a goal down would be a very difficult job, I think, mentally for the players to come back from but if that’s the case they’d have to try and do it.
"But what we won’t have to do is go daft like they have done before and leave the back door open and conceded two, three and four again.”
On Leeds' survival hopes
Allardyce was also asked about this week’s ‘Maniac Monday’, in which all four teams threatened with relegation apart from Leeds played.
Nottingham Forest collected a vital three points at home to Southampton in a seven-goal thriller, while Leicester lost 5-3 on the road to Fulham and Everton picked up three immeasurably important points at Brighton, winning 5-1, which will do wonders for their confidence.
However, for Allardyce, the focus is only on his side and winning the games in front of them, with the manager keen to see his side still in the survival fight come the last day of the season at Elland Road in front of Tottenham Hotspur.
“We won’t stay up with 30 points, nobody’s ever going to do it, nobody ever will. We’ve got nine points to go for. We know if we get nine points which is a massive ask we’ll stay up. If we get six, we might do, if we get five. What are we going to be? I have to say this at this moment in time, I want to be still in it when we play Tottenham, that’s what I want to be. I would be very satisfied if when we play Tottenham we are still in it.”
Allardyce later added: “It’s purely and simply focusing on Newcastle and trying to get the three points that we desperately need. But I have said to the players and I will say it now, when we come off the field on Saturday, we can’t afford to lose. We must get something.”
