{"id":660237,"date":"2025-12-29T12:28:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T12:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/660237\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T12:28:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T12:28:13","slug":"key-defender-out-for-liverpool-trip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/660237\/","title":{"rendered":"Key Defender Out for Liverpool Trip"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leeds<\/a> United are expected to be without a key central defender for their visit to Liverpool on New Year\u2019s Day after sustaining an injury in their 1-1 draw at Sunderland<\/a>.<\/strong> <\/p>\n

For the second time in a month, Leeds<\/a> and Liverpool will meet in the Premier League<\/a>, but Arne Slot<\/a> will hope his side hold onto a winning margin this time around.<\/p>\n

There will be a change in personnel and likely formation for Leeds<\/a> after Joe Rodon suffered an injury in the 1-1 draw at Sunderland<\/a> on Sunday. <\/p>\n

The centre-back had played every league minute for Daniel Farke up until he was forced off in the 31st minute, and now he is expected to miss out at Anfield. <\/p>\n

\u201cNot good,\u201d Farke said when updating on Rodon\u2019s condition after the match. \u201cJoe is my warrior. Has played so many games in a row, and of course he wanted to stay on the pitch.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201c[He] got a hit on his ankle, and by doing this I think he also rolled his ankle, and it\u2019s pretty swollen. <\/p>\n

\u201cAt the moment, I doubt that he will be available for Liverpool and also for the upcoming games before the FA Cup<\/a> game. So we have to wait for some further assessment. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut right now, straight after the game, it doesn\u2019t look too good.\u201d <\/p>\n

Liverpool, on the other hand, did not appear to pick up any issues from their win over Wolves<\/a> and instead welcomed back Conor Bradley<\/a> and Cody Gakpo<\/a> after their respective fitness concerns. <\/p>\n

Leeds could now change their formation vs. Liverpool<\/p>\n

\"LEEDS,<\/p>\n

Leeds<\/a> stemmed their run of defeats by switching to a 3-5-2 formation, which has resulted in two wins and three draws from the last five, which includes the 3-3 draw against Liverpool.<\/p>\n

Rodon is crucial to this set-up, and his withdrawal at Sunderland<\/a> saw Leeds<\/a> revert to a back four of Jayden Bogle, Jaka Bijol, Pascal Struijk, and Gabriel Gudmundsson.<\/p>\n

The switch, however, saw Farke\u2019s side dominate Sunderland<\/a> in the second half, as they scored, had a total of 11 shots, and created three big chances while keeping Sunderland<\/a> to zero.<\/p>\n

This ought to have grabbed the attention of Arne Slot<\/a>, who has witnessed his side sit off opponents in the second half<\/a> and invite pressure. <\/p>\n

In the last four league outings, Liverpool have conceded a combined 30 second-half shots, 11 on target, compared to just three shots on target across the first half. <\/p>\n

Possible Leeds<\/a> XI: Perri; Bogle, Bijol, Struijk, Gudmundsson; Ampadu, Aaronson, Stach; Tanaka, Okafor, Calvert-Lewin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leeds United are expected to be without a key central defender for their visit to Liverpool on New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":660238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8814],"tags":[748,393,4884,1860,201833,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-660237","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leeds","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-leeds","12":"tag-liverpool-vs-leeds","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115802859967993749","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660237","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=660237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/660238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}