Leeds United travel to London to face Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday in the final game before the league goes on temporary hiatus for the World Cup in Qatar. Jermaine Beckford has been speaking about the contest on The Official Leeds United Podcast.
Both sides were knocked out of the Carabao Cup in midweek with Leeds losing out narrowly 1-0 at Wolverhampton Wanderers and Spurs losing out 2-0 at Nottingham Forest. Leeds made 10 changes to the side that beat Bournemouth last weekend with the majority being U21s or fringe players but are expected to resume with a team that resembles Saturday’s side. Spurs have a selection headache of their own with a host of first-team players that missed the defeat to Liverpool, still expected to remain on the sidelines for the visit of Leeds. Richarlison and Son Heung-Min are the main doubts.
Spurs will be hoping to wrap up the month with three points taking them to third in the table and further strengthening their push for a top-four finish whilst Leeds, currently sitting in mid-table after the dramatic late wins at Anfield and at Elland Road against Bournemouth, are looking to consolidate their place in the top half and stretch the gap on the relegation places even further.
Beckford said of the spurs game, “Yeah, Spurs are a funny team at the moment, they’re a funny team at the moment, they start games slowly, slowly they get back into the game, they look pretty decent but they’ve got a lot of players out, a matter of fact I think they’ve got the two key players fit, coming back to full fitness. You’ve got Harry Kane, they’ve got creative players, but they start slow, they’re notoriously slow starters, so if we can start the game off the same way that we started against Bournemouth, the first two minutes, rather than the rest of that half, I’m pretty sure we will cause them all sorts of issues, all sorts of problems”
Do you agree, can Leeds upset Conte's men?
Yes, definitely!
No chance!
“That’s where we come into our own because we love to do that overload, that high intensity press on the left, on the right, in the middle, up top, that’s what we do. We’re fantastic at it and they looked like in the last couple of games, Spurs, they looked like they didn’t like teams playing in their face. You know they want to, they want to be a little bit hands-off and just drop off a little bit, and you have it over there kind of thing, but I think if we just get in their face right from the off, we can cause them a good few problems.”
I tend to agree with Beckford on this one. Spurs have looked a different side in recent weeks and they have a feel of a team that is more concerned about not losing than they are of trying to win. They certainly have dangerous players in their ranks, and Leeds need to be on it for 90 minutes. Either way, it will be an exciting game and fascinating to see if the Whites can replicate the shock waves they caused at Anfield two weeks ago.
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