Inside Elland Road: Are Leeds Utd physically able to compete in the Premier League?
The Leeds United manager made two changes for Sunday’s Premier League trip to Nottingham Forest.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin did return to full Leeds United training this week but not in time to start at Nottingham Forest, manager Daniel Farke has confirmed.
Calvert-Lewin picked up a small adductor strain during last week’s 3-0 defeat at Brighton and was forced off. The 28-year-old hadn’t trained with his teammates by the time Farke held his weekly pre-game press conference on Friday.
Farke said a late call would be made on the former Everton striker who was eventually left out of the starting line-up at the City Ground. He was replaced by Lukas Nmecha but found a place on the substitute’s bench, which suggests any injury is not serious.
“Sadly Dominic Calvert-Lewin has a muscle strain and only joined us in team training in our final session,” Farke told Sky Sports. “Glad to have him available but he’s not ready to start and not for 90 minutes.
“Lukas has had a really good training week, scored many goals and also some decent performances at the beginning of the season, at home to Newcastle for example. I’ve got a feeling he’s on it today.”
The other major change saw Anton Stach replace Ao Tanaka in central midfield, with neither able to nail down a starting place in recent weeks. German international Stach had been managing finger and rib issues in recent weeks and Farke hopes his compatriot can return to the form he enjoyed earlier this season.
“He’s had a great start to life in the Premier League for us, been struggling a little bit in the last few weeks but he had a really good training work,” Farke said of Stach. “Brings confidence, physicality, strength on the ball and hopefully he delivers.
“The most important thing [against Forest] is to show courage on the ball and dominate as many periods as possible. Pretty sure Nottingham Forest will be very competitive, very aggressive, We have to be ready for the challenge.”
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