Daniel Farke has a couple of selection headaches for Leeds United’s trip to Middlesbrough on Monday.
Farke made three changes to the side that faced Blackburn Rovers last time out and after a disappointing 1-0 defeat, a similar number could be in the offing once again.
Leeds have one fresh injury concern to contend with ahead of the game as Connor Roberts is now set to be ruled out for the next two matches after suffering from a recurrence of the issue he picked up on international duty with Wales last month.
The nine-day break since the defeat to Rovers last weekend has come at arguably the perfect time for Leeds, with their automatic promotion bid having stalled recently.
Farke will be hoping he picks a side ready to get back to winning ways and so here is our predicted XI for the game at the Riverside.
Goalkeeper
Illan Meslier has been Farke’s number one all season and unlike this time 12 months ago, that will not be changing now.
Defence
As mentioned, January loan signing Roberts will not be available for this one and so Farke has a couple of options to consider at right-back.
Sam Byram has not started since his goalscoring impressive display against Hull City earlier this month, but based on his selections this season, Farke is more likely to select Archie Gray.
Joe Rodon and recently crowned Leeds POTS Ethan Ampadu will continue at centre-back, with Junior Firpo on the left side of defence
Midfield
With Gray back in defence, that should see Glen Kamara returning back into the engine room after sitting out against Blackburn.
Kamara had been suffering with a bout of illness last week and he should now be back at full tilt to partner Ilia Gruev once again.
Attack
Leeds’ attack has been misfiring as of late and the uncertainty in the number nine role has been a major contributing factor to that.
Joel Piroe was largely ineffective on his return to the starting XI, and so it would be a surprise if he was given another go.
Calls for Mateo Joseph to start just continue to grow but Phil Hay believes Patrick Bamford is the most likely of the two to come in).
Just in behind Bamford looks set to be Willy Gnonto, Georginio Rutter and Crysencio Summerville. Leeds need all three of them at their best in the run-in.
Predicted XI: Meslier; Gray, Rodon, Ampadu, Firpo; Gruev, Kamara; Gnonto, Rutter, Summerville; Bamford