{"id":585868,"date":"2025-11-22T02:13:28","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T02:13:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/585868\/"},"modified":"2025-11-22T02:13:28","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T02:13:28","slug":"predicted-xi-and-team-news-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/585868\/","title":{"rendered":"Predicted XI and Team news"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leeds United<\/a> host Aston Villa this Sunday afternoon in need of a positive result to stop their slide towards the bottom three.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Daniel Farke\u2019s time at Leeds is coming under serious scrutiny at the moment<\/a> after four losses in the last five games in the Premier League.<\/p>\n

Up next for the German is a return to Elland Road. Aston Villa<\/a> are who awaits for United this Sunday, with both sides needing three points for contrasting reasons.<\/p>\n

Most Read on LeedsAllOver<\/p>\n

Leeds United team news pre-Aston Villa: No injuries confirmed by Daniel Farke<\/p>\n

Thankfully, there are no new injuries to report from Farke\u2019s squad<\/a>. The internationals out on duty have returned to the group unscathed, ready for the weekend.<\/p>\n

That means the likes of Dan James, Willy Gnonto, and Sebastiaan Bornauw have benefitted from a further two more weeks of training, and in James\u2019 case match sharpness on duty with Wales.<\/p>\n

Here, I predict the lineup Daniel Farke will name as Leeds United host Aston Villa\u2026<\/p>\n

Goalkeeper: Lucas Perri<\/p>\n

In goal, Lucas Perri is going to keep his place.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a mixed opinion on the Brazilian at the moment, and I can see why. I personally am happy with how he\u2019s been performing, but there\u2019s no getting around the fact he looks shaky at best when he\u2019s got the ball at his feet.<\/p>\n

\"\"Lucas Perri will keep his place as Leeds United goalkeeper. (REUTERS\/Chris Radburn)<\/p>\n

He could have done better for Forest\u2019s equaliser as he palmed a cross into trouble, but it\u2019s worth remembering that Leeds only took the lead thanks to a frankly ridiculous save he made in the phase before.<\/p>\n

Defence: Jayden Bogle, Joe Rodon, Jaka Bijol, Gabriel Gudmundsson<\/p>\n

The one debatable position in the squad is what to do with Jaka Bijol<\/strong>. The centre-back again drew positive reaction during Slovenia duty<\/a>, but was playing as part of a back three, rather than on the left side of a back four at Leeds.<\/p>\n

\"\"Jaka Bijol has a point to prove for Leeds United. (Action Images via Reuters\/Lee Smith)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s obvious that Farke isn\u2019t getting the best from his summer signing. And to move in the right direction, he needs to essentially stop treating Bijol like he\u2019s Pascal Struijk. The Dutchman is Leeds\u2019 best centre-back with the ball at his left foot, so a lot of buildup funnels through him. A straight swap for Bijol hasn\u2019t changed Leeds\u2019 approach, so Bijol has looked awfully clunky on the ball.<\/p>\n

I personally would bring Struijk back in if Farke\u2019s to persist with this buildup strategy. But, seen as I\u2019m predicting what Farke will do, and I\u2019m already expecting three other changes further up, I\u2019ll keep Bijol in.<\/p>\n

The rest of the back four remains the same: Jayden Bogle<\/strong>, Joe Rodon<\/strong> and Gabriel Gudmundsson<\/strong> staying put.<\/p>\n

Midfield: Ao Tanaka, Ethan Ampadu, Anton Stach<\/p>\n

My first change to the XI sees Sean Longstaff make way for Ao Tanaka<\/strong>. Leeds\u2019 midfield is somewhat varied, to the point where we need to approach home and away games differently.<\/p>\n

Against Villa, there\u2019s scope for Leeds to have more joy on the ball than they have done away from home, so that means getting our best technician back in the side. <\/p>\n

\"\"Ao Tanaka should come back into the Leeds United XI vs Aston Villa (REUTERS\/Scott Heppell)<\/p>\n

There\u2019s rational to suggest we could consider dropping Ethan Ampadu<\/strong> too at the moment, given his sloppy tracking of runners in recent games. But, Farke won\u2019t drop his skipper and I don\u2019t think he should.<\/p>\n

Anton Stach<\/strong> makes up the trio, and after a fortnight off, we should be looking at a much sharper version of the German after recent fitness struggles<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Attack: Dan James, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Noah Okafor<\/p>\n

The most talked-about decision that awaits for Farke is who starts on the right-wing. Brenden Aaronson has been starting without much fear of being dropped at the moment, clearly a favourite of the manager\u2019s due to being a \u201cworkhorse\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, if Leeds want to get out of this rut of being largely toothless in attack, they need their best attacking players starting, which could well be Dan James<\/strong>. He\u2019s back to match sharpness thanks to his Wales exploits<\/a>, and there\u2019s absolutely no reason now why he shouldn\u2019t start.<\/p>\n

\"\"Dan James must be brought into Leeds United\u2019s starting XI to face Aston Villa. (REUTERS\/Peter Powell)<\/p>\n

Lukas Nmecha\u2019s confident touch and finish against Forest could well see him start too. However, I do think if Leeds want their best side out, Dominic Calvert-Lewin<\/strong> is starting. The German\u2019s strike means he\u2019s overtaken DCL as our top-scoring striker, so there\u2019s food for thought at least that it\u2019s not a clear cut decision.<\/p>\n

What is a clear decision is Noah Okafor<\/strong>, Leeds\u2019 best threat, starting on the left.<\/p>\n

Full Leeds United predicted XI to face Aston Villa<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Read more: Manager teases Leeds United transfer swoop with confirmed plan for bid<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leeds United host Aston Villa this Sunday afternoon in need of a positive result to stop their slide…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":585869,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8814],"tags":[102,748,1385,25764,393,4884,1860,2922,142361,142362,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-585868","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leeds","8":"tag-aston-villa","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-daniel-farke","11":"tag-elland-road","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-leeds","15":"tag-leeds-united","16":"tag-lufc","17":"tag-the-whites","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115590937991293909","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=585868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/585869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}