Sheffield Wednesday v Leeds United teams news: Marcelo Bielsa keeps faith with unchanged line-up
Marcelo Bielsa stuck to his word and kept faith with an unchanged line-up as Leeds United looked to recover from their first Championship defeat of the season at Sheffield Wednesday tonight.
Bielsa had vowed to back the side who lost to Birmingham City last weekend and duly delivered on that promise with the identical team at Hillsborough.
Midfielder Kalvin Phillips kept his place despite being substituted in the first half of United’s 2-1 defeat to Birmingham and goalkeeper Bailey Peacock-Farrell was also retained on the back of the mistake which led to City’s opening goal.
Bielsa, whose squad lead the Championship after nine matches, has been without key players Kemar Roofe, Pablo Hernandez, Gaetano Berardi and Patrick Bamford since the season’s first international break earlier this month that group were absent again this evening.
Young forward Jack Clarke replaced Ryan Edmondson on the bench in the only alteration made by Bielsa.
Wednesday manager Jos Luhukay made two changes to the team who beat Aston Villa 2-1 six days ago. Fernando Forestieri and Jordan Thorniley came in for Marco Matias and Daniel Pudil.
The Owls were bidding to close to within a point of Leeds with a victory in Sheffield.
Sheffield Wednesday: Dawson, Lees, Hector, Thorniley, Baker, Pelupessy, Bannan, Reach, Penney; Forestieri, Fletcher. Subs: Wildsmith, Palmer, Rice, Preston, Onomah, Nuhiu, Joao
Leeds United: Peacock-Farrell, Ayling, Jansson, Cooper, Douglas, Phillips, Harrison, Saiz, Klich, Alioski, Roberts. Subs: Blackman, Baker, Forshaw, Dallas, Shackleton, Edmondson, Pearce.
Referee: Robert Jones