/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/61496705/1025602292.jpg.0.jpg)
Match: Leeds United v Birmingham City
Date: 21 September, 2018
Time: 15.00 BST, 10.00 EDT, 11.00 ART
Venue: Elland Road
Television/Streaming: LUTV or BluesTV for overseas customers
Previous Result: Birmingham City 1-0 Leeds United 30 December, 2017 in the Championship
Leeds United continued their points streak on Tuesday with a 3-0 domination of Preston North End at Elland Road. Up next, they will take on Birmingham City, who are one of just two teams who are yet to win a game. Of course, former Leeds manager Garry Monk has been in charge of Birmingham since March, and he will look to better his record against The Whites. On the other end of the table, Leeds remains in first-place, and they are the only Championship team to not have lost a match.
| Five #LUFC players have made it into @WhoScored’s Championship Team of the Week after Tuesday’s win pic.twitter.com/zMg8G1mu7b
— Leeds United (@LUFC) September 20, 2018
Despite a tough outing against Millwall on September 18th, Bielsa stuck with the same starting XI against Preston, and the strategy paid off, as Tyler Roberts led The Whites with 2 goals to win just their second game in the last five. Additionally, Jack Harrison has been quite impressive, replacing the injured Pablo Hernandez and scoring against Millwall, then hitting the frame of the goal against Preston. One sign of a great team is depth, and Leeds’ bench pieces have certainly been playing well in the absence of the missing starters.
Unfortunately, their injury concerns will not be allayed for the Birmingham match, as Marcelo Bielsa recently revealed that none of the injured players will be ready for Saturday. They include Patrick Bamford, Kemar Roofe, Pablo Hernandez, Izzy Brown, Gaetano Berardi and Jamie Shackleton.
So expect the starting lineup to look very similar to the last two games, as Leeds look to earn their 40th all-time win over Birmingham. City has proven that they have a solid defense this year, only allowing 7 goals so far, which is less than teams like West Brom and Bristol City. Their problems lie with their offense, which has scored only 5 goals, leading them to an impressive 6 draws through 8 matches. Leeds’ backline should have no problems handling Birmingham’s attack, which is led by forward Lukas Jutkiewicz, though it remains to be seen if they will be able to break through the four defenders and keeper Lee Camp.
Here's your Friday afternoon reminder that Marcelo Bielsa is the head coach of Leeds United.
— I'd Radebe Leeds (@Radebe_Leeds) September 21, 2018
Marcelo. Fucking. Bielsa. #lufc pic.twitter.com/oTmZddYKdA