Leeds United welcome Liverpool to Elland Road on Monday night, hoping to put their recent 5-1 defeat behind them
Leeds will play their third home game in a row this week, following victories over Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace. Javi Gracia’s side has three points from those two games.
A much-needed win over Forest was not followed by a similar result against Palace, as the Eagles ran riot in the second half, winning 5-1.
Preview of Leeds vs. Liverpool
Next up at LS11 is Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool, who are running out of time to get back into the top four mix, currently sitting in eighth place.
Leeds United have the opportunity to complete the double over Liverpool for the fourth time in club history, having defeated the Reds away at Anfield in October under Jesse Marsch.
What is Chris Sutton’s forecast?
Before the game, BBC pundit Chris Sutton believes Leeds have a good chance of winning on Monday.
He wrote this to justify a 1-1 draw for the Whites in his game prediction:
“This is simply impossible to predict. Which Leeds team will show up, and for how long… and how will Liverpool perform this time?
“Last week, Leeds were really good in the first half against Crystal Palace, but they completely collapsed after the break.” Liverpool did the inverse against Arsenal, making a poor start before fighting back. I’m not sure why it took the Xhaka incident to get them fired up and playing with the right intensity.
“Jurgen Klopp’s side has struggled on the road this season, particularly against teams in the bottom half of the table, but you have to consider the impact of that heavy Palace defeat on Leeds’ confidence at Elland Road.” They must demonstrate that they are not as frail as they appear.
“Liverpool’s defense and midfield have been far from their best this season, but their attack has still been a handful – so Leeds can’t keep them out.”
“Equally, you just don’t know what you’re going to get defensively from the Reds right now – I don’t see them keeping a clean sheet either, even against a team that seems to waste a lot of chances.”
Sutton is correct; it’s difficult to predict because it’s difficult to predict which version of each side will appear.
We don’t stand a chance if the Liverpool team that played Arsenal shows up, but if he comes up against the same team that we faced at Anfield and we play similarly, we win.
There’s definitely a chance for us to surprise them, but it’s difficult to be confident in their overall quality.
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