Leeds United finished the Championship season in third place and will now take on Norwich City in the play-off semi-finals on Sunday and Micah Richards is confident Leeds will win the mini-tournament.
Leeds finished in third place on Saturday after failing to produce a final-day miracle and leapfrog Ipswich Town into second. Leeds needed to beat Southampton and Ipswich had to lose to Huddersfield Town.
But Daniel Farke’s side suffered a home defeat and Ipswich cruised past relegated Huddersfield to win 2-0. It leaves Leeds to fight it out in the play-offs after losing four of their last six Championship matches.
They go up against a Norwich side that are also in a poor run of form, winning only once in their last five. Their final-day defeat to Birmingham City saw them slip into sixth, while West Brom face Southampton.
None of the four sides are in the best of form, with Southampton losing their last three before beating Leeds and West Brom winning only two of their last nine so it is all to play for come May 26 at Wembley.
Richards though believes Leeds have what it takes to win the play-offs and explained why on The Rest Is Football podcast over the weekend, praising one area of Farke’s squad.
Here is what Richards said:
Richards explains why Leeds will win the Championship play-offs
What Leeds do have is that they finished in third place, winning more points than any of the other three. A gap of 17 points from Leeds to Sunday’s opponents Norwich, and The Whites boast the best defence.
Just 43 goals conceded in 46 Championship games, 20 less than Russell Martin’s side. But Richards thinks Leeds will go and win the play-offs because of the attacking stars on show at Elland Road at the moment.
“I’m going to go with Leeds. I just think in the last couple of weeks they have underperformed. They went on that amazing run and sort of fizzled out a little bit,” Richards said, on The Rest Is Football podcast.
“The reason why I say Leeds is that in the forward areas, if they get it right, they have the most quality. I know they have (been in bad form). The play-offs is a completely different thing, it’s another chance.”
Leeds need to change dismal play-off record to win promotion
Leeds have got themselves into the play-offs five times but lost on all five occasions. The most-recent being Marcelo Bielsa’s first season, losing to Derby after a 4-2 collapse at Elland Road in the second leg.
Luciano Becchio scored against Millwall in 2008-09 but the London side knocked Leeds out in the semi-finals. A 15-point deduction a season earlier didn’t stop Leeds reaching the play-offs in 2007-08.
Leeds got to the final but lost 1-0 to Doncaster and everyone will remember the 3-0 final hammering to Watford in 2005-06. Billy Bremner’s side lost to Charlton Athletic back in 1986-87 after a final replay.
The club’s record is woeful in the play-offs and Farke will have to do something no other Leeds manager has ever done, and win the end of season tournament which even Bielsa failed to do.