Leeds United manager Daniel Farke, Jadon Sancho in a circular insert.
Leeds United are back in Premier League action this weekend after defeating Birmingham City in the FA Cup in their last outing.
Daniel Farke’s men are set to be pushed to their limits over the next week or so, with United’s trip to Villa Park to face an Unai Emery side who sit third in the league being followed up by an arguably even tougher task as the Whites host Manchester City at Elland Road the following weekend.
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With Leeds’ gap to the bottom three being six points, there is a potential that this lead becomes far less over the next two games, with Farke’s men needing to hold their nerve as we enter the business end of the season.
Aston Villa winger Jadon Sancho recently had his say on the upcoming clash, with the Englishman being confident of picking up a result.
Jadon Sancho confident Villa will get a result against Leeds
Due to Sancho’s affinity with Manchester United, with the 25-year-old only being on loan at Villa until the end of the season, there will certainly be no love lost between him and the travelling Leeds supporters.
Speaking in an interview on Aston Villa’s official YouTube channel, Sancho shared his thoughts on the upcoming clash.
“Another tough opponent”, Sancho said ahead of the game.
“But again, if we stick to our game plan and play how we play, I’m sure we can get a result.”
Whilst Leeds fans will be desperate to prove Sancho wrong, they, like Farke, know that a tough test lies ahead of them.
Speaking in his press conference before the game, the German manager had this to say about the Whites’ trip to Villa Park.
“Emery has done a great job, developing them into a European force. It is important they don’t shine too much in offence because they have top individual quality.
“We have to reduce them to as little as possible and be pretty effective in using our situations. Need to be brutal and relentless in finishing situations. They don’t allow the opponent to score many goals. We need to be very effective in both boxes.”
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Data suggests Leeds can be confident ahead of their clash with Villa
When the two sides met at Elland Road back in November, the pressure was ramped up on Farke as United fell to a narrow 2-1 defeat after initially going a goal up.
Since then, Leeds’ fortunes have changed dramatically, losing just three of their next 16 matches in all competitions, meaning the Leeds side Villa are preparing to face tomorrow is a completley different one than the one they narrowly defeated back in November.
Even when Leeds were not at their best, and Farke had yet to deploy his five at the back formation for the first time, they still went toe to toe with Emery’s men, with the data suggesting they were unfortunate not to get a result.
Leeds had a 1.79 xG in the reverse fixture and only managed to score once
On the other hand, Villa were more clinical on the day, scoring two goals from an xG of 1.58
The Whites also managed to create three big chances as opposed to Villa’s one (Sofascore)
Given how competitive they were last time, there is no reason that this new and improved side under Farke can go and give a really good account of themselves at Villa Park and maybe bring a point back to West Yorkshire with them in the process.
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