It all starts today

Today marks the start of a new season and new hope at Elland Road. The new start could not really have a more difficult beginning. A home game against a team, Burnley, who kept three clean sheets in their final three premier league games last season. However, in my opinion if Leeds are going to improve this season they cannot afford to lose games like this and should be looking to even get a win. Burnley are a good team there is no doubt about that, they have in my opinion everything they need to launch a bid for the top six, maybe not top two; A calm and positive manager, A variety of playing styles and plenty of players with championship experience. They certainly surprised me two seasons ago and were more than worthy of promotion two seasons ago.

But this Leeds United team has grown in confidence especially over the last week. A fantastic win verses Everton last weekend started this new confidence off, where in the end I felt Everton where lucky we didn’t win by more than two goals. Stuart Dallas from Brentford also appears a good signing, we will have to hope he can bring his Brentford form to the team, whilst Sol Bamba appears to be a very popular choice of captain and did a good job in my opinion when he was captain last season.

The strengths of this Burnley team are; The strike force they have so many options i.e. Barnes, Vossen, Vokes, Sordell, Jutkiewickz and Long. They also have three very impressive wingers in Michael Kightly, Scott Arfield and George Boyd who I think could cause us problems defensively. The team as a whole is strong and very well balanced with players such as Matthew Taylor and Michael Duff helping this.


My Predictions for Burnley

I think it will be a one all draw. Two weeks ago I would have predicted Burnley to win this game comfortably. However, Leeds confidence over the last week has doubled in my opinion and the whole performance vs Everton means I don’t think we will lose the game. I think it will be a very tight game it may even be 0-0. 1-1 would not be too bad a result, we cannot afford to lose the game in my opinion.

My Predicted Leeds team (4-3-3): Silvestri, Berardi, Bellusci, Bamba, Taylor, Adeyemi, Cook, Mowatt, Byram, Wood, Dallas.

My Predicted Burnley team (4-4-2): Heaton, Darikwa, Keane, Duff, Mee, Arfield, Ulvestad, Jones, Boyd, Vossen, Barnes.


What I expect from Leeds this season?

I think the minimum target needs to be a top half finish and if we make the top ten I would be delighted. I have confidence in Uwe Rosler and believe that he should be given time, our start to the season is very difficult in my opinion and I hope all Leeds fans will be patient with Uwe. Some fans I spoke to believe that we may be able to have a serious push for the top six, Looking at our fixtures if we can get to 14-15 points before the start of October then I believe we would have a reasonable chance. With games such as Burnley, Derby, Ipswich and Middlesbrough to start with it will make it very difficult to make that good a start, however, this is the championship and anything is possible. Overall, there are 8-10 teams better prepared, in terms of squad size and strength, for a top 6 push than us, therefore, top ten is the most realistic target for the season. I just hope fans aren’t going to judge Uwe Rosler on whether he gets us into the top six or not.

Key Player- Chris Wood; Leeds main problem last season was the strikeforce not getting enough goals, however, the addition of Chris Wood I hope and believe will be a good solution to this problem. Didn’t have the best time at Leicester in my opinion, however, there were a lot of potential reasons for this. His previous experience in the championship shows there is a good chance he can find his goal scoring touch again at Elland Road. Alex Mowatt will be key again to our chances as well.