Hull City v Leeds Utd
Saturday 29th February 2020 12.30 | KCOM Stadium
Leeds are the visitors to the KCOM Stadium on Saturday for a lunchtime kick off against local rivals Hull City. The Whites will be full of confidence as they stretched their winning run to three games following their one-nil win at The Riverside Stadium midweek. Meanwhile 60 miles due East, Hull's only victory of 2020 came on New Years Day against the Sheffield Wednesday. Since the turn of the year they have scored 9, but conceded 20.
The January departures of Jarrod Bowen and Kamil Grosicki may have raised between £12-15m but with with the Allam family in charge, I would expect the money to be invested back into their club. Hull's latest defeat, at home v Barnsley saw the Tigers drop to 17th place in the table, four points and five places from the drop zone. Following the defeat Tigers Manager Grant McCann warned his players what a similar performance would mean on Saturday against Leeds:-
We’ve got a very, very tough game on Saturday. One of the best teams in the league are coming here. If we perform like we did (against Barnsley) then we’ll get hammered. That’s exactly what I’ve told the group. We need to roll our sleeves up now, do it for themselves, do it for their families, do it for this football club. They need to start taking responsibility and that’s everyone.
With Kiko Casilla now banned for the next eight games, French U20 shot stopper Illan Messlier is likely to take the gloves for Leeds. Kalvin Phillips faces a late fitness test having sustained a dead leg a week ago against Reading. Ben White will deputise, as he did midweek against Middlesbrough with Berardi stepping into defence.
Patrick Bamford will once again lead the forward line. Recent £15m loan signing Jean-Kevin Augustin picked up a minor muscle injury which Bielsa confidently predicts will keep the big man on the treatment table until next week. The 22 year old has played less than 50 minutes for the Whites since signing over a month ago on loan. Last time out between the sides Leeds won 2-0 thanks to a de Wijs own goal and and end to end effort finished off by Alioski in the eighty third minute.