Leeds United have one major selection headache heading into their first Premier League match for a fortnight.
Kalvin Phillips’s one-match suspension raises an old, long-running problem for Marcelo Bielsa in that crucial holding role for Brighton & Hove Albion.
Nobody has really got anywhere near the level of the England international in that position since the Argentine arrived in the summer of 2018.
Thankfully, other problems encountered at Tottenham Hotspur have been solved in the interim with the returns of Liam Cooper, Tyler Roberts and Diego Llorente.
In the case of the captain especially, it does mean the change in personnel should be straightforward for the head coach.
Cooper, after coming through 45 minutes at Crawley Town unscathed, is set to start in central defence where Luke Ayling has to remain on current form.
A fully-fit, sharp and tested Llorente would be nailed on to play alongside Cooper, as had been the plan when he was signed, but after his setback at Chelsea and no under-23 minutes yet, it’s easy to see Bielsa holding him back.
Pascal Struijk will not necessarily leave the XI with Cooper’s return, though. The Dutch defender was played in Phillips’s position while the man himself was shunted into defence last weekend.
That has to be a clear sign of Bielsa’s plan to play Struijk there tomorrow against the Seagulls.
Everyone else picks themselves. Stuart Dallas, Mateusz Klich, Patrick Bamford, Illan Meslier and Ayling did not even travel to West Sussex last weekend, so should be firing on all cylinders tomorrow.
Brighton have chopped and changed their formation a lot this season, but 3-4-2-1 has been the most common shape, which lends itself to a 3-4-3 in attack and thus a back four the Whites.
Predicted XI: Meslier; Dallas, Ayling, Cooper, Alioski; Struijk; Raphinha, Klich, Rodrigo, Harrison; Bamford.
