Leeds United will look to pick up a rare victory and keep their faint Championship play-off hopes alive when they host Yorkshire rivals Sheffield Wednesday at Elland Road on Saturday, on the back of a 2-2 draw against Reading previously.
The out-of-form Whites looked to be on course to pick up just their second win in 13 matches when they led 2-1 against a lowly Reading at the Madejski Stadium last weekend thanks to goals from Pontus Jansson and Pablo Hernandez, but Eunan O’Kane’s own goal in the 58th minute meant that the spoils were shared.
The result left the Yorkshire outfit in the bottom half of the table and 11 points adrift of the top six with just nine league games remaining.
Manager Paul Heckingbottom will know that is side may need to win all of those to have any chance of gate-crashing the play-off party – starting against the Owls.
The former Barnsley boss will fancy his chances of taking all three points against Jos Luhukay’s men considering they are 12 points and four places adrift of them in the table, and take some solace from the fact they have only taken 16 points in 18 Championship matches on the road this term.
Heckingbottom will be considering making some changes to the XI that drew in Berkshire as he looks to pick up just second win since he succeeded Thomas Christiansen last month, and he will regret it if he fails to make a couple of important alterations to his team.
Here are two big changes the 40-year-old must make to his Leeds side when they host Wednesday…
De Bock looked as though he could be a decent buy for Leeds United in his first few appearances on the pitch, impressing the fans on his debut, but he soon began to struggle and was dropped after he had a bit of a shocker in the 2-2 draw against Derby County.
The Belgian didn’t play a single minute of the Yorkshire outfit’s following three fixtures – two of which he didn’t make the squad for either – before he returned to the XI against Reading after Vurnon Anita had put in a below-par display against Wolves.
The 25-year-old once again saw questions marks thrown over him as he often failed to deal with the threat of Modou Barrow for the Royals, with 19-year-old Pearce named on the bench by Heckingbottom at the Madejski.
With little to lose and more senior players not doing the business, the Whites boss should make a big decision and blood the teenager from the start against a lowly Owls side.
Some Leeds supporters certainly would have been shocked to see O’Kane make the starting XI at the Madejski Stadium after he struggled in the 3-0 defeat against Middlesbrough at the start of the month, and was then an unused substitute in the 3-0 loss to Wolverhampton Wanderers at Elland Road.
To be fair to Heckingbottom, aside from Adam Forshaw he is struggling to find another central midfielder who is form right now with O’Kane, Phillips and Ronaldo Vieira all looking far from their best.
The former of the trio’s showing against Reading, which he was slammed for by his own supporters, suggest that he shouldn’t start against Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday though, and the 40-year-old boss should instead give Phillips and Forshaw another go from the start as he looks to find a long-term first-choice partner for the £4.5m January addition.
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