Options are running out, form is plummeting for some players and Leeds United have a match they simply have to win on Sunday if they harbour hopes of surviving relegation. At the outset, when it comes to my XI, it has to be clear Junior Firpo, Diego Llorente and Rodrigo have been overlooked.
Their confidence must be shot to pieces on the evidence of their recent performances and they are not options, in my eyes, to be relied upon to come up big on Sunday (feel free to screenshot this and hammer me when they score). When you discount the Spanish contingent, the team almost picks itself.
There are some 50-50 calls you might weigh up around the fringes with youth options, but this XI uses the abundance of centre-backs available while carrying enough bodies in the final third to score the goals needed. Pascal Struijk as a wing-back is one of the slots I am open to debate on.
READ MORE: Leeds United ownership steps in with 11th-hour player meeting ahead of fateful Brighton clash
Sticking the Dutch centre-back there, where I maintain he has been more than decent this season, frees a slot for Charlie Cresswell to come into a back three and gets Jack Harrison, one of the painfully few attacking options, into a front three. Harrison and Mateusz Klich would also be on the chopping block on recent form, but their experience is badly needed with how young the bench looks otherwise.
Jamie Shackleton finally gets his start on the right flank with the cupboard ahead of him in the pecking order very bare. Much like Struijk’s choice, Shackleton frees Raphinha to then be in a front three, affecting the game.
Lewis Bate is unfortunate to miss out immediately after a full league debut, but his impressive cameo at Arsenal was followed by a difficult, consuming night in an Elland Road cauldron which exposed him. Even an out-of-form Klich should have a bigger say on affairs.
Beren’s XI: Meslier; Cresswell, Koch, Cooper; Shackleton, Phillips, Klich, Struijk; Raphinha, Gelhardt, Harrison.
