After a brilliant win at Elland Road on Tuesday all but guaranteed safety, we can focus on the FA Cup \u2013 and this is a game I hope we take as seriously as possible. Despite Vale\u2019s lowly league position they\u2019ve picked up under their new manager, and this game absolutely falls into the \u2018nothing to lose\u2019 category for them. Sadiki and Hume are suspended, and there\u2019s also the threat of FA Cup suspension hanging over Xhaka, Ballard, Le Fee and O\u2019Nien too should we progress. So, how will Le Bris line up the lads today?<\/p>\n
Goalkeeper: Melker Ellborg<\/p>\n
Ellborg had a bit of a shaky start with his feet at Elland Road but grew in composure and in the end had a much quieter night than he\u2019d have expected as Leeds barely had a shot on target. It\u2019s a different test for him today, and another good one.<\/p>\n
Defence: Lutsharel Geertruida, Dan Ballard, Omar Alderete, Luke O\u2019Nien<\/p>\n
With Hume suspended, and Reinildo, Mukiele and Cirkin out injured, it\u2019s bare bones stuff at the back. I think we\u2019ll see Geertruida drop back into right back and Luke O\u2019Nien move across to the left to fill in there. We could go three at the back with Geertruida in midfield \u2013 I wouldn\u2019t be surprised at that if Xhaka doesn\u2019t play \u2013 however I think he will\u2026<\/p>\n
Midfield: Granit Xhaka, Habib Diarra, Enzo Le Fee<\/p>\n
IF Xhaka\u2019s fit to start, he\u2019ll play in his usual position with Habib Diarra and Enzo Le Fee alongside him. Whether or not Xhaka plays will underline just how we\u2019re approaching this. Chris Rigg is the one you\u2019re looking at and wondering whether he\u2019ll get a start somewhere, but I reckon we\u2019ll go as strong as possible in midfield to start with, and see where we get to as the game progresses.<\/p>\n
Forwards: Nilson Angulo, Wilson Isidor, Chemsdine Talbi<\/p>\n
Bertrand Traore\u2019s injury at Elland Road could see him done for the season, but we\u2019ve got some good options out wide, and I think Talbi will come back into the team today on one flank while Angulo will continue on the other. Up front, Mayenda\u2019s played the last two so I think Isidor will be given a chance today. I thought criticism of him on Tuesday was unjust \u2013 neither he nor Mayenda were in the game much, but he did have the shot that led to the penalty, and today could be the opportunity he\u2019s been waiting for.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a brilliant win at Elland Road on Tuesday all but guaranteed safety, we can focus on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":812196,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[748,393,4884,9991,12,1144,391,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":["post-812195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-match-previews","tag-news","tag-northern-ireland","tag-opinion","tag-scotland","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-wales"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116193519597068485","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812195","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=812195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/812196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=812195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=812195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=812195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}