Leeds Utd: The next few games are going to be tough for Leeds Utd
Leeds United’s Sunday afternoon hosts Nottingham Forest were in European action on Thursday night.
A struggling pair were taken off as a ‘threadbare’ Nottingham Forest endured a European battle just three days before Leeds United’s visit.
Second-bottom Forest and fifth-bottom Leeds will lock horns in a massive Premier League clash at the City Ground on Sunday afternoon, ahead of which the two teams have had very different build-ups.
Daniel Farke’s Whites have had a free mid-week on the back of Saturday’s 3-0 defeat at Brighton but Forest had a midweek trip to Austria to contend with to face Europa League hosts Sturm Graz less than three days before United’s visit.
Boss Sean Dyche currently has a whole host of injuries to contend and said pre-match that he was probably without 11 players for the Thursday night clash in Austria.
Seven changes made to the team
The Forest boss made seven changes to his team who left who squandered a golden chance to go ahead in the 35th-minute when Morgan Gibbs-White saw his penalty saved.
Gibbs-White was eventually taken off with 12 minutes left but there was no sign of Gibbs-White struggling, unlike fellow substituted pair James McAtee and Arnaud Kalimuendo.
Both players went down needing treatment before eventually being taken off as both appeared to be feeling the effects of cramp.
After impressing in the opening exchanges, McAtee was replaced by Dan Ndoye in the 66th minute whereas Kalimuendo lasted until the 80th minute, the striker replaced by young right back Zach Abbott who himself impressed with his late cameo.
Abbott’s efforts helped Forest in their bid to make a late breakthrough but the contest ended in a goalless draw, Nicolas Dominguez seeing his fine effort from a cleared corner in the 90th minute crash back off the crossbar.
Speaking post match, Dyche admitted that his squad was currently threadbare and that the changes were needed ahead of Sunday’s visit of Leeds.
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