Leeds expected 4-2-3-1 v Bolton: Five summer signings to start in Christiansen debut
COMMENT By Will Butcher
Thomas Christiansen is expected to name five of Leeds’ 10 first-team signings in his first competitive side to face Bolton on Sunday afternoon.
The Yorkshire giants travel to Lancashire to face Phil Parkinson’s Bolton at the Macron Stadium, which kicks off at 4.30pm.
Christiansen has brought in Felix Wiedwald, Vurnon Anita, Matthew Pennington, Mateusz Klich, Samu Saiz, Caleb Ekuban, Ezgjan Alioski and Ouasim Buoy, as well as securing permanent deals for Pontus Jansson and Hadi Sacko.
Of those 10, Wiedwald, Anita, Pennington, Alioski and Sacko are expected to start the match against Bolton as Christiansen looks for a winning start in his hunt for promotion.
It will see the likes of Rob Green, Stuart Dallas, Liam Bridcutt and Kemar Roofe miss out, despite impressing during pre-season.
Signed from Werder Bremen, German stopper Wiedwald has been given the chance to shine over Green in pre-season and he is expected to become Leeds’ number one for the 2017-18 season.
Luke Ayling should retain his place at right-back with his competition being Gaetano Berardi, who is likely to line-up at left-back due to Charlie Taylor’s departure to Burnley.
Everton loanee Matthew Pennington and Liam Cooper started alongside eachother in the last pre-season fixture against Oxford, and should do the same against Bolton with Jansson suspended for the first two games of the 2017-18 campaign.
Captain Bridcutt, teenager Ronaldo Vieira, Kalvin Phillips and new signing Mateusz Klich are all expected to miss Leeds’ first match, with Christiansen preferring Anita and Eunan O’Kane in the middle of the park.
In front of them, Spain international Pablo Hernandez is likely to start over Saiz, supported by wingers Sacko and the effervescent Alioski that proved his worth during the summer.
The summer signing from FC Lugano scored against Eibar and he is expected to have done enough to earn a place in the starting eleven.
Despite the signing of Ekuban, there is no doubt that Chris Wood will lead the line after scoring a huge 30 goals for the Whites in all competitions last season.
In other Leeds news, the Whites should join a Championship quartet by moving for this striker.
We’ve launched a << BREAKING NEWS FEED>> exclusively for your club. ‘Like Us’ on Facebook by clicking here if you want 24/7 updates on all Leeds breaking news.