Injuries have plagued Leeds United quite a lot since Marcelo Bielsa’s arrival.
Last term they had an unbelievable amount of problems, suffering 31 issues before April had even commenced. Unfortunately, that trend has continued.
On Saturday, Stuart Dallas picked up an injury, and with Adam Forshaw still sidelined it may be time for a formation change at Leeds.
What’s the situation then?
The Athletic’s Leeds United correspondent was hosting a Q&A session on the website, and inevitably, questions cropped up around Dallas’ fitness.
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Hay gave an update on the Northern Irishman saying: “Dallas had scans on Monday. Seemingly the damage wasn’t as bad as everyone thought it might be. It’s his calf and I don’t know when he’ll be back but shouldn’t be too long. He is very versatile, though, and has been valuable in that respect.”
Although that update sounds positive, he would later add that he doesn’t expect Dallas to feature this weekend: “Someone told me that the scans on Dallas’ calf ruled out any serious injury. Not sure if Dallas will make QPR but it doesn’t sound like he’ll be out for long which is a bonus because he looked in a bad way on Saturday.”
Formation change needed
It’s always a big blow to lose a man who has started every single league game this season, but luckily this may have come at a good time.
Pablo Hernandez recovered from his injury to feature last weekend, and he could slot into the midfield in place of Dallas.
Of course, Hernandez doesn’t provide the defensive cover that his teammate does as he averages just 1.4 tackles per game compared to Dallas’ 2.2, so a formation change could be just what the doctor ordered.
Bielsa could go back to the 3-3-3-1 variant that utilised a narrow diamond in order to incorporate Hernandez as a number 10, while the returning Jamie Shackleton could partner Mateusz Klich in the midfield just in front of Kalvin Phillips.
It’s a tried and tested formation this term and Leeds are yet to lose when utilising it.
In other news, Victor Orta should treat a recent transfer update as a wake-up call.