There’ll be a huge amount of intrigue surrounding Sam Allardyce’s first ever Leeds United team selection when it drops this afternoon. The head coach has only had three days working with his players following his appointment on Wednesday afternoon and he knows that selecting a team capable of challenging Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium is far from straightforward.
However, Allardyce, having pored over and analysed previous Leeds outings, has spent the last day or so putting the finishing touches on a team and a plan that he hopes can provide a huge shock by toppling the reigning Premier League kings on the same afternoon as the coronation. On the face of it, it seems as though he has decisions to make all over the park.
He’ll be keen to make changes to a backline that leaked 23 Premier League goals over the last month, while he must find a way of shoring things up in the middle to ensure his defence isn’t quite as exposed. In attack it seems the former England, Bolton Wanderers and Sunderland man has a tricky choice to make, as well, in a bid to keep Leeds ticking over in front of goal.
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Changes seem inevitable then as Allardyce bids to make his mark, but we’ll only find out how many at around 2pm.
“And round pegs in round holes,” the head coach grinned when asked if he would opt for square pegs in square holes. “Yeah, well, as best we can fit where they would prefer to play with tactics in mind.
“Obviously, there's two ways we play that I think they've lost. In possession I've always seen them to be very, very good so there's not an awful lot of work needs to be done in from that point of view. Out of possession recently has been, as everybody can see by the goals conceded, something that needed most of the work on in the short period of time with that, so balance the two. In possession, fine, carry on the way you carry on to try and create an open opportunities but make sure you know when you lose the ball you block off the openings. If you don't do that against Manchester City, you're going to be facing the big problem.
“You can expect a system that you'll see when we get the team out tomorrow. That's about as much as I can say.”
Without a doubt the biggest decision Allardyce faces, though, comes between the sticks as he battles with the notion of dropping Illan Meslier, who has been out of sorts and short of confidence of late.
“Well I don't ever see a problem in training because you know there's no real pressure there like in the game,” Allardyce said regarding his impressions of Meslier at Thorp Arch. “So with a goalkeeper coach working with him there's nothing you can see to suggest or say anything, other than you look at him and he does what all the keepers do together.
“They go through the routine, they’re a bit daft, a bit mad, they love what they do. If you did that for an outfield player, they’d get really bored, but the goalkeepers love it.
“They’re in a good pack together, like a little family of their own. So that will help him hopefully but that for me lies to be one of the probably the biggest decisions I have to make today.”
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