Leeds United vs. Wolves
Venue: Elland Road
Kick off: 3PM
Leeds United and Wolverhampton Wanderers get their Premier League campaign underway with a fixture at Elland Road this afternoon.
The home side are hoping for a much-improved season after dramatically avoiding relegation in 2021-22, while Wolves are under pressure to bounce back from a number of deflating performances during the run-in.
Since Jesse Marsch replaced Marcelo Bielsa as Leeds boss, the American has divided opinion, particularly when his side were on the brink of losing four successive games during the run-in.
However, Pascal Struijk’s last-gasp equaliser against Brighton & Hove Albion and the 2-1 triumph at Brentford which followed put a positive spin on Marsch’s short tenure, freeing up the Yorkshire giants to make widespread changes during the summer.
Naturally, losing the likes of Kalvin Phillips and Raphinha is regarded as a blow in most quarters, but the funds generated from their sales has allowed Marsch to build a team, rather than being heavily reliant on a couple of star men.
The new faces which have arrived at Elland Road have plenty to prove, but that is exactly what Marsch would want. As soon as Phillips and Raphinha were ready for fresh challenges, Marsch needed to get players through the door who were ready to enhance the club’s standing in what will be an increasingly competitive season.
Leeds can also be happy with their pre-season, their third victory in five outings coming as recently as last weekend as they posted a 6-2 triumph over Cagliari.
From Wolves’ perspective, they enter the new season needing to rediscover some momentum after failing to win any of their remaining seven games in 2021-22.
As well as missing out on Europa Conference League football, Bruno Lage’s team dropped down to 10th position, a hugely disappointing finish after once being in contention for the Champions League.
Lage has used pre-season to switch to a back four, incorporating new arrival Nathan Collins, but a knee injury to Raul Jimenez has left Wolves short in attack for the opening weeks of the campaign.
With a number of games that they would consider to be favourable coming during that period, it is far from ideal, and Lage is left to rely on Morgan Gibbs-White bringing a freshness to their work in the final third.
Pre-season can be described as eventful, with a defeat to Levante in ‘The Battle Of Benidorm’ being complemented by a win over Besiktas and draw at Sporting Lisbon.
Leeds United possible XI: Meslier, Struijk, Koch, Llorente, Kristensen, Roca, Adams, Aaronson, Rodrigo, Harrison, Bamford.
Wolves possible XI: Sa, Jonny, Collins, Kilman, Ait-Nouri, Neves, Moutinho, Dendoncker, Gibbs-White, Podence, Neto.
