Leeds United are licking their wounds after Monday night’s thumping by Leicester City and Marcelo Bielsa may look to redress some balance in his team.
Thursday’s press conference did not yield the avalanche of upbeat injury news we hoped for.
Diego Llorente, disappointingly, is still unavailable nearly four weeks after hurting his groin with Spain. United’s own projections had Llorente back by this weekend.
Rodrigo, Kalvin Phillips and Adam Forshaw, as expected, are absent, while Raphinha provided the only shred of good news.
Bielsa did not rule the Brazilian out, but admitted it would be a late call before Friday’s journey to London.
Despite that, Raphinha is unlikely to be in the reckoning from the start anyway. The debate for Bielsa is around which youngster he includes in the middle.
Pascal Struijk and Jamie Shackleton have traded poor starts and early substitutions in the last two matches, putting themselves at risk of missing out again.
Mateusz Klich did not fare well against Leicester in the deep-lying role. Palace are expected to sit deep and deny United space, opposition Klich is used to facing as a central midfielder.
After a demoralising result like Monday’s, Bielsa may well revert to what he knows and some normality, pushing Klich forward alongside Pablo Hernandez and recalling Struijk.
That should mean one change in total with Shackleton out and the other 10 remaining from Monday.
Predicted line-up: Meslier; Ayling, Koch, Cooper, Dallas; Struijk; Costa, Klich, Hernandez, Harrison; Bamford.
