Yorkshire Derby Preview: Sheffield Wednesday vs Leeds United.

Match: Leeds United v Sheffield Wednesday

Date: 26th October 2019

Time: 12.30 BST, 07.30 ET, 04.30 PST.

Venue: Hillsborough, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England

TV Coverage: Sky Sports Main Event, Sky Sports Football

Streaming: iFollow, LUTV (outside the UK).

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Leeds make the short journey to Sheffield tomorrow in the Sky Bet Championship’s early kick off to face rivals Sheffield Wednesday.

Leeds come into the derby after a decent point on the road on Tuesday night at Deepdale. Many people thought United may have lost all three points in Preston when the hosts took the lead in the 74th minute, however super-sub Eddie Nketiah levelled things up with only three minutes to go to give Leeds a point to take back across the Pennines.

FAMILIAR FACE

Tomorrow will see Leeds come up against former manager Gary Monk who is currently in charge of The Owls, where he actually had a loan spell as a player in the 2002/03 season. Monk has his side sitting third, just one place behind Leeds in the table and by only one point.

Monk took charge of the Whites in the 2016/17 season, which was Leeds’ first real promotion push since the Simon Grayson days. However, in the final few games of the season Monk’s Leeds side slipped in form and finished in 7th place on a dramatic final day of the campaign.

Photo by Catherine Ivill - AMA/Getty Images

OVERVIEW

Monk has been at the helm at Hillsborough since early September and has taken this Wednesday side on a good run since he replaced Steve Bruce in South Yorkshire losing only once in the league and winning four out of seven league fixtures.

Sheffield Wednesday players and fans will be looking to build on their good run of form and continue pushing for those top spots that they find themselves only a point away from. There is no doubt they have more than enough motivation to give Leeds a game tomorrow in the early kick off.

With the amount of chances this Leeds United side create, they would have hoped to be sitting at the top of the table and creating a nice gap between themselves and the stragglers below however this is far from the case.

Leeds tomorrow face opposition that are right behind them in the promotion race and only a point separates the two. Bielsa and his team can not afford a slip up in South Yorkshire tomorrow if they want to maintain their position in the automatic places.

The two teams have many incentives to go and get the three points tomorrow, a Yorkshire derby is always a big one, a place in the top two at stake and of course a victory over Leeds United would probably be well received in the Monk household.

TEAM NEWS

A Marcelo Bielsa press conference is always a good indication of the team that will play on the Saturday, or in many cases, he just straight up says it. Firstly lets answer the question that everyone wants to know... Bamford or Eddie?

Photo by Alex Dodd - CameraSport via Getty Images

Bielsa spoke more on this subject on Thursday than he ever has done before, giving an analysis of the two different styles of play both players bring to the side. In short Bielsa came to the conclusion that although Nketiah will score goals for the team, he isn’t the type of player to create those chances for goals to come from, where as in his opinion Bamford is vital to the team in order for chances to be created but at this moment in time he is not the one scoring them.

“Bamford will play” were Bielsa’s final words to the press before his conference ended on Thursday, however, he did not say that Nketiah won’t play so whether we may seem them start together, who knows?

INJURY UPDATES

PREDICTED LINE UP

Usually with this one I would go with the most obvious prediction but this will be more of a “hopeful line up” as this is what I would like to see tested at Hillsborough tomorrow.

Tomorrow will be another tough away fixture for the Whites but with so much at stake I’d like to think the three points will be coming safely back to West Yorkshire.

What do you think the result will be? Let us know in the comments below or on Twitter @ThruItAllLUFC.