Predicted Leeds United XI to face Norwich as Daniel Farke hands full debut to ‘intelligent’ player

Leeds United face a quick turnaround following Saturday’s 3-0 win over Coventry with a trip to Norwich City.

The match at Carrow Road is the first of two tricky away fixtures in just four days as Leeds also travel to face high-flying Sunderland on Friday night.

For the first time since moving to Elland Road in July 2023, Leeds will be without Ethan Ampadu for a Championship game after Daniel Farke confirmed his knee injury could rule him out until January.

Manor Solomon, Max Wober, Isaac Schmidt and Dan James are also set to be absent for Leeds, leaving Farke with an extremely threadbare squad for a tough week ahead.

Here is our predicted XI for the game.

 

Ethan Ampadu of Leeds United is replaced by Ao Tanaka due to injury during the Sky Bet Championship match between Leeds United FC and Coventry City...

Photo by George Wood/Getty Images

Goalkeeper

Illan Meslier keeps his place in goal.

Defence

Due to the pile up of injury problems, Sam Byram is now effectively Leeds’ only senior backup option in defence.

After carrying injuries through last week, Leeds are now heavily relying on both Pascal Struijk and Junior Firpo to come through as well as they can.

Joe Rodon and Jayden Bogle are likely to make up the rest of the back four, with the latter looking to build on his best performance in a Leeds shirt against Coventry.

Midfield

Ampadu is going to be a huge miss for Leeds in the next few months but his absence will open the door for Ao Tanaka to get a proper opportunity.

Bogle hailed Tanaka as ‘very intelligent’ after his performance on Saturday, and so is almost certainly set to be handed a full debut at Norwich.

He will be joined by Ilia Gruev in the midfield, though it is unclear which roles Farke will opt to utilise them in.

 

Attack

Joel Piroe continues to make an impact off the bench for Leeds but Farke would be foolish to change a front line that worked so well at Elland Road.

Wilfried Gnonto produced a stellar display against Coventry and will be looking to do so again alongside Brenden Aaronson and Largie Ramazani, who were both also excellent.

Mateo Joseph keeps his place leading the line as his performances continue to improve, even if the goals aren’t necessarily flowing yet.

Predicted XI: Meslier; Bogle, Rodon, Struijk, Firpo; Gruev, Tanaka; Gnonto, Aaronson, Ramazani; Joseph

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