Friday will give Leeds a visit by the seaside, and a meeting with two old friends, Gus Poyet & Casper Ankergren. Newly promoted Brighton has taken the championship by storm and has lost only once, last weekend against promotion favourites Leicester. They are a team with a few stars, the mentionable ones being Vicente, who they somehow managed to sign under the noses of a lot of other teams, & Craig Mackail-Smith, who was snapped up in the summer after a great season in Peterborough.
Gus Poyet, who was without doubt the brain in the Wise/Poyet partnership a Elland Road have managed to get Brighton promoted from league one last year, and according to him & Ankergren promotion this season is a possibility this season as well (I reserve the right to be sceptic about their chances though). As mentioned they’ve been flying in both league & league cup (until last night when Liverpool knocked them out that is), in the league they’ve beaten teams like Cardiff, Doncaster & Portsmouth, so Leeds face a tough test on Friday night.
Leeds United was thoroughly beaten on Tuesday night, Manchester United tore us apart at Elland Road and we were fortunate to only loose 0-3. But there is a massive difference between Manchester United and Brighton, and I believe that if the lads just took the game on Tuesday as an experience they will be able to built on it, and make sure that these big games will be played at Elland Road more than once or twice a season. In my opinion only Leigh Bromby & Adam Clayton did alright on Tuesday, so we will have a couple of players who will want to prove themselves on Friday.
Last weekend’s win against Bristol City gave Leeds their first back-to-back wins of the season, and we should look to build on that against the seagulls. They are usually pretty good at home, so maybe one point would be okay? Leeds will have new signing Danny Pugh available, and it will be interesting to see if he replaces Aiden White, who in my opinion was the worst against Manchester U, or if he replaces Keogh on the left side of midfield. Apart from the Pugh question I’m pretty sure that Simon Grayson will name the same starting players as he did Tuesday, only question mark is whether Becchio is ready for another start following his injury in pre-season? If not, Keogh could be moved in attack and new boy Danny Pugh given the start on left midfield.
Another player who is currently playing beneath his level is Robert Snodgrass, I think he will prove his worth to the team and cause Brighton a lot of trouble and possibly end up as out match winner. So score prediction will be 1-0 Leeds, goal by Snoddy.
M.O.T
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