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Match: Hull City v Leeds United
Date: 29th February 2020
Time: 12.30 GMT, 07.30 ET, 04.30 PST.
Venue: KCOM Stadium, Hull, East Yorkshire, England
TV Coverage: Sky Sports Football.
Streaming: iFollow, LUTV (outside the UK).
Following three 1-0 wins in a row, Leeds United face an away game against a Hull City side that haven’t won a league game since New Year’s Day. A win will extend Leeds’ lead over the playoff pack as they all play later, it would really up the pressure on those sides.
As usual with Leeds, there isn’t a lot to say with regards to the team. If Kalvin Phillips is fit he will come back in for Gaetano Berardi, Jean-Kevin Augustin will miss the match with a hamstring injury. My guess is that Phillips will not yet be ready.
Marcelo Bielsa is unlikely to spring any major changes but Kiko Casilla has been playing with a hand injury so it is possible that Illan Meslier could play in goal if that has got worse - not likely though.
Hull have been awful lately. They lost their main creative outlets in January when they sold their best two players: Jarrod Bowen to West Ham United and Kamil Grosicki to West Bromwich Albion.
Hull will get relegated.
— Barry From Beeston (@rex_arms) February 28, 2020
Mental business selling Grosiki and Bowen, they're absolutely dire and in a world of trouble.
On top of these two key sales, main striker Tom Eaves has now been ruled out for the rest of the season with ankle ligament damage. Manager Grant McCann has also confirmed that the centre-back pairing of Reece Burke and Jordy De Wijs will both miss the game. In addition to these, midfielder Jon Toral, Queens Park Rangers loanee Josh Bowler, Liverpool loanee Herbie Kane, and USA international defender Eric Lichaj are all out.
All of these problems will likely see a huge amount of the attacking responsibility fall on former Leeds man Mallik Wilks. He has scored three goals in his last four appearances following his loan move from Barnsley FC and will probably line up on the right-wing.
Updates on Mallik Wilks, Jordy de Wijs, Reece Burke, Jon Toral and Keane Lewis-Potter...#hcafc | #theTigers
— Hull City (@HullCity) February 28, 2020
Defensively another former Leeds player will probably start - and if he could recreate his Leeds’ form we will be very happy. Hull is the latest loan destination for Everton centre-back Matthew Pennington, by all accounts his form has been better at Hull than it was for Leeds despite not playing many games due to a combination of injury and the Burke/De Wijs combination.
Matthew Pennington is a horrendous footballer #LUFC
— Post Mix Lemonade (@MMMMMNoodleSoup) April 21, 2018
Norway Winger Martin Samuelsen is fit and may start. Hull do have a very creative outlet in attacking midfielder Marcus Maddison, signed from Peterborough in January, so he will be a threat for Leeds to deal with. Tom Eaves will probably be replaced by Northern Ireland international Josh Magennis up front.
PREDICTED LINE-UPS
Hull (4-2-3-1): Long; McKenzie, Pennington, McLoughlin, Elder; Da Silva Lopes, Stewart; Maddison, Irvine, Wilks; Magennis
Leeds (4-1-4-1): Casilla; Ayling, Berardi, Cooper, Dallas; White; Costa, Hernandez, Klich, Harrison; Bamford
I think Leeds will make harder work of this than they should - but they’ll claim a 2-0 win. I really hope Patrick Bamford can get a goal, he really needs one.
What do you think the result will be? Let us know in the comments below or on Twitter @ThruItAllLUFC.