It’s a huge weekend for Leeds United in the battle for a play-off final place at Wembley.
Marco Bielsa’s side narrowly missed out on automatic promotion, but secured a top-three finish despite a 3-2 defeat to relegated Ipswich Town on the final day of the season.
That set up a mouth-watering tie with Derby County, who secured sixth place ahead of Bristol City and Middeslbrough, who were all within a chance of leapfrogging the Rams heading into the final weekend.
However, it was Derby who secured a vital 3-1 victory over fellow play-off contenders West Bromwich Albion to set up a huge encounter between the two sides who know each other very well.
Leeds United fans will love this supercomputer play-offs prediction
Heading into 2019, Frank Lampard’s side looked a shoe-in for a play-off place. Yet three back-to-back defeats in mid-February looked to threaten his side's chances and nearly saw them slipping out of contention.
Lampard managed to steady the ship and now his side will fancy their chances of securing promotion to the Premier League for the first time in 11 years.
The former Chelsea midfielder usually plays different variations of a 4-5-1 and although his side don’t particularly excel in either defence or attack, they have struck up a fairly decent balance of ranking in the top eight of the tables for both.
Similar to Leeds , although less effective, Derby aim to dominate possession of the ball. They average 407.41 passes per 90 minutes which ranks fifth in the division. Additionally, they also rank fifth in terms of their average ball possession with 54.5 per cent.
Why Daniel James's Manchester United transfer may not be as certain as reports suggest
Notably, United rank in the top two in both of these departments.
Furthermore, both sides rank first and second in terms of their eagerness to press. In terms of Passes Per Defensive Action (PPDA), which focuses on how many passes a team allows before essentially moving to regain the ball, Leeds average just 6.31 whereas Derby average 8.16.
United managed the league double over the Rams this season and a big key to both of those victories was the Whites' ability from crosses. Derby don't particularly deal well with direct balls into their box and this was exposed by Leeds in both their matches.
Of their six goals against the Rams this season, four led directly from a cross.
As illustrated in the above crossmaps from both matches, Leeds found great success down their right-side through a trio of Pablo Hernandez , Jack Clarke and Luke Ayling. Their ability from the flanks could be key again across the two legs against Lampard’s side.
In truth, these sides are tactically both very similar, except Leeds seem to be just that bit better in each department, which may explain why they secured a league double over their play-off rivals this season.
It also illustrates why they should be favourites to progress over the two legs and set up a trip to Wembley in two weeks' time.
