Leeds United will be looking to get back to winning ways when they take on QPR at Elland Road on Wednesday night
Leeds United will be happy for the quick turnaround this week following their hefty loss to Southampton on Saturday. The Whites were comfortably second best on the south coast, but the visit of QPR on Wednesday gives them the opportunity to bounce back to winning ways immediately.
Daniel Farke’s side will be motivated to right some wrongs and the German will almost certainly be looking to freshen up his side with a few changes. There are decisions to make for Farke then and they could come across the park with several players pushing to be involved from the start against the Londoners.
Farke made the call to stick with a winning team on Saturday as he resisted the urge to bring Joe Rodon back into the fold. That meant Liam Cooper started alongside Pascal Struijk for the second straight game, despite both men being left-footers.
The collective performance of the pair makes a change easy to see, with Rodon set to come back in, you’d think, while one of Cooper or Struijk drops out. Struijk has played a lot of minutes this season already but Cooper isn’t long back from injury and it remains to be seen whether he is capable of playing another 90 minutes in such a short space of time.
Given the way Farke has managed Sam Bryam’s game time this season so far, it’s fair to question whether the full-back will be named in the starting line-up this time around. Byram endured a wretched afternoon at St Mary’s and while Junior Firpo will be out until after the international break, Farke does have the option to switch things up.
Jamie Shackleton can play on the left-hand side, of course, in a change that would see him switch flanks and Luke Ayling step into the line-up to take on the right-back role.
On the face of it, there’s a straight choice in the centre of midfield with Farke set to decide between starting either Glen Kamara or Archie Gray alongside Ethan Ampadu. Kamara has got the nod for Leeds’ last two games but struggled at Southampton and the quick turnaround might provide an opportunity to mix things up and give Gray, who started Leeds’ first seven league games, another start.
