Leeds head into the 5th league game of the campaign at Norwich City on Saturday, a tough game despite the starts of both sides this season.
Norwich probably won’t be looking forward to the arrival of Leeds United and Marcelo Bielsa but as we know in the Championship, 90 minutes can be extremely random.
First things first and Norwich could either get lucky, or unlucky with the Leeds United situation.
Pontus Jansson and Liam Cooper were both ruled out of the Swansea fixture on Tuesday night and Luke Ayling partnered Gaetano Berardi, both right-backs and to be fair both playing decent. If it’s the same pairing at Norwich then there is an opportunity to take advantage, balls into the box probably the issue.
On the flip side two players were hooked early at Swansea and that may open the door for new players to impress. Kalvin Phillips and Gjanni Alioski were both subbed off, Phillips in the 28th minute and Alioksi at half-time. Lewis Baker and Jack Harrison, loan players from Chelsea and Manchester City may well fancy there chances if they start at Carrow Road.
From a Leeds perspective this isn’t a case of heading to Norwich and expecting a big win, but the fans certainly consider us a team that can now compete with anyone in the division.
Stoke and Derby met Marcelo Bielsa’s side in full swing the first couple of games and in all honesty if Leeds play like we did in those two games, Norwich will do well to get anything.
That being said Rotherham caused us a few problems by sitting behind the ball and breaking on us, I just don’t see Norwich being set up like that by Farke.
The German coach hasn’t really got top grips with the Championship fully yet in my opinion. Norwich remind me of Leeds a few years ago in all honesty, and the more time goes on the more it feels like that.
Cheap foreign players with a few experienced from the Championship doesn’t really work when your combining it with cost-cutting.
I hear Jack and Chris talk about the comparison to Huddersfield a lot, fans often talk about it when they ask questions on the podcast, but there is one glaring difference for me. Huddersfield did it to move forward and progress, Norwich are doing it to save money.
Key players
Jordan Rhodes – From a Leeds United perspective Rhodes is always a player who has a goal in him against us. He had a great record before his move to Boro and in the back of my mind I do fear he could grab one. If Jansson or Cooper are fit it will help, but if we go with two full-backs he’ll fancy his chances.
Samu Saiz – I’m not sure how much Norwich fans know of Saiz but to Leeds fans he’s the key player. If he plays well we stand a chance in any game. This season he has Kemar Roofe, Pablo Hernandez and Mateusz Klich all playing well. We have Patrick Bamford who can make a difference too.
I have seen a bit of winger Onel Hernandez and he seems to be a quality buy for Norwich.
Quick and direct every team needs a player like that. He is the sort of player you can get abroad on the cheap and make a success of it. The problem is for every one of him there are three or four bang average players, we’ve seen this in recent years and frustratingly the best players have left.
I’ve seen the likes of James Maddison and the Murphy twins leave for big money and it barely gets reinvested, a horrible situation that the fans can do nothing about, Leeds fans know all about it.
Even this summer we sold youngster Ronaldo Vieira and basically spent around £3 million net, the difference is the quality of the five players brought in. Barry Douglas and Bamford, as well as Blackman and Baker from Chelsea and Harrison for Manchester City.
The biggest difference though is one man, Marcelo Bielsa.
Follow Leeds United fan and writer Charlie Sopp on Twitter here: @soppy13mot
