Inside Elland Road: Are Leeds Utd physically able to compete in the Premier League?
Sean Dyche has made a Nottingham Forest admission ahead of Sunday’s huge Leeds United visit.
Boss Sean Dyche has made a Nottingham Forest fitness admission ahead of Sunday’s massive Premier League showdown against Leeds United and explained a star’s absence.
Second-bottom Forest and fifth-bottom Leeds will lock horns in a huge Premier League showdown 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 now face a very tight turnaround after a Thursday night Europa League clash in Austria against Sturm Graz which ended in a goalless draw.
The Forest boss made seven changes to his side for whom star men Matz Sels and Murillo were named on the bench.
Rapidly rising England international midfielder Elliot Anderson, meanwhile, failed to make the matchday squad.
Dyche, though, insisted post match that the changes were needed and that Anderson was missing as a precaution due to carrying various knocks.
The Forest boss declared his frustration at being held to a goalless draw in Graz but admitted his squad was currently threadbare and that fitness levels had to improve.
“It’s the fitness that has to improve”
“We’re frustrated we didn’t win the game,” said Dyche as quoted by Nottingham Forest’s official website.
“We dominated the first half, but we’ve got to score some of those chances, which we didn’t do.
“We ran out of steam a little bit in the second half, which we expected because we’re a bit threadbare and some of the players haven’t played a lot of football.
“We’ve got to keep working on that and the fitness levels. There certainly wasn’t a lack of effort — it’s the fitness that has to improve, and they’ve locked that in tonight.
“We controlled the first half, but you’ve got to score goals to win games, which is my biggest gripe. We had two or three golden chances and got into key areas.
“On the other hand, it’s a clean sheet; they didn’t really threaten our defence, and I can’t remember them having too many chances. It was just the cutting edge that we didn’t have to win the game.
“We have a threadbare squad that has put in a shift and delivered a performance that has at least got us a point.”
“It’s because we had to”
As quoted by Nottinghamshire Live, Dyche added: “It's not rotating for the sake of it, it's because we had to.
“You look at the injuries. Elliot was more of a precaution, but he’s got various knocks he's been carrying so we wanted to give him a chance to try to ease them.
“Igor (Jesus) was obviously suspended and we've got the three players (Taiwo Awoniyi, Omari Hutchinson and Jair Cunha) who are not part of the Europa League group. That's challenging in itself.
“But that's where it's at at the moment. We want to win against Leeds, obviously, but then hopefully the international break just gives players a bit more time and the injuries can settle down.
“At least with a no-game schedule for those two weeks, players are not missing more games. Hopefully they get fitter quicker, or quicker than expected.”
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