Coventry (H): Preview

The matches are coming thick and fast at the moment and Coventry City will be the third home game in 18 days, with another next Saturday, the big one…Ipswich at home. That game will be the exact halfway point in the season after 23 games. Coventry are another decent Championship side and today will not be easy for Leeds. The visitors could have not been closer to winning promotion last season, losing on penalties to Luton in the playoff final. They have been inconsistent this season and sit midway in the league but today is their biggest game of the season. This is what Leeds United have to face, week in week out. Imagine Man U playing in the Championship. This is how it is for our lads.

The Championship is a tough league and a long hard slog of 46 games but for Leeds, every game we play, is our opponent’s biggest game of the season and the reason why our players have a bigger challenge than every other Championship player. Farke says so often how relentless the season is, and it is for every team, but even more relentless for us. The first half of the season is always the hardest, like a plane taking off and getting up to cruising height. The players will have bedded in well during that time, the new team getting to know each other better as the matches come and go and the New Year should bring an easier period for Leeds United. We won’t be able to put our feet up, the opposition will still have their biggest game of the season, but hopefully we will have a bit of cruise control and be able to have less pressure on the team.

Leeds have done brilliantly to be in third place. 10 points is a big gap to Ipswich in second and the reason why their visit to Elland Road next Saturday is the most important game so far this season for both teams. Today is the curtain raiser and next week will be a lot less significant if Leeds don’t win today. Farke hinted in his pre-match presser that Leeds will be unchanged. The form at Elland Road has been good enough to see us unbeaten so far and the run of 7 wins on the trot at home needs to stretch to 8 today and then to 9 next Saturday against Ipswich. What are the odds of that happening? Very, very unlikely, so today is huge and it will not surprise me if we have to suffer another disappointment after the defeat to Sunderland.

A full house today will lift our team and we do have some great players and in most games they make plenty of chances. Sunderland had us in a stranglehold on Wednesday night and made a blueprint for other teams to use when they play against us. It wasn’t that Leeds were so bad against Sunderland, it was that the home team were flawless in carrying out their brilliant tactical plan. I remember so many games under Bielsa, in the two seasons of the Championship, when Leeds were not good enough to break the opposition down and we were unable to score to win the game. There will be plenty more attempts to smash and grab and today will be one of those. A mild, dry day at Elland Road hopefully will bring us another win to stay within shooting distance of a top two finish but I am expecting a close hard struggle. There will be excitement and surprises and I am looking forward to it.

By David Dean