The glory days will return to Elland Road for a while on Tuesday night when fierce rivals Manchester United arrive in Leeds to play a 3rd round game in the Carling Cup. The history and rivalry between the two teams go way back, the rose’s derby or the derby across the pennines have been the most important game for supporters of both teams since the 60’s, in the last couple of years we haven’t had to many of the games though, due to Leeds fall from grace. The most recent game was of course on January 3rd 2010 when Jermaine Beckford’s winner gave, then third tier, Leeds United a 1-0 win at Old Trafford. Many players have left one team and gone to the other, the most important (for us) being Johnny Giles and Gordon Strachan who both guided us to big triumphs, our sale of Cantona to them being rather important too, unfortunately not for Leeds United who sold one of the 90’s best footballers for basically nothing.
Manchester United will arrive at Elland Road full of confidence after starting the season great with maximum points in the league were they have torn everything apart, beating both Arsenal & Chelsea on their way. In Europe they managed to snatch a draw in Portugal with a reserve side, probably the same side we will face on Tuesday night. I am pretty sure that Sir Alex Ferguson won’t underestimate Leeds United, and will be aiming to gain “revenge” after the humiliating defeat last year.
Leeds United will look to keep a good run going, having won the last two games. We haven’t managed to keep a clean sheet all season though, and with Man United scoring 21 goals in five games I am not too sure that Tuesday will be the day we get the first one. Patrick Kisnorbo will miss the game following his red card against Bristol, which will most likely give Leigh Bromby the chance to play against our rivals. Ross McCormack will be looking to keep his great season going, he has scored in his last five games and is finally melting into the Leeds line up. Luciano Becchio will also be in contention for a starting spot after being put on in the last two games, giving him one goal and one assist, Mikael Forssell and Andy Keogh will also push on, so once again Simon Grayson will have an overload of offensive power to his disposal. One thing that I would like to see is that Simon takes Ramon Nunez off, he’s looked out of position in the last two games, and I feel he will do better as a impact player instead of a starting player, Lloyd Sam could easily fill his place on the left side of midfield.
Following the game we look likely to sign Danny Pugh, Stoke wants him to play the cup game for them, making him ineligible to play for us in the next round, but we need to focus on the league so that’s probably okay.
Manchester United’s last two games before our FA Cup meeting last year ended with them winning 5-0 and 3-1 and then crashing to Leeds, yeah you’ve guessed it, last weekend they beat Bolton 5-0 and Sunday they beat Chelsea 3-1 – Coincidence? I Don’t think so ;)
I dream of a Leeds win and hope that we will get it, 2-1 Becchio and Howson scoring!
M.O.T – Hopefully these games will soon be played week after week at Elland Road.
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