Phil Sumbler
There will be more than a few familiar faces in the Leeds squad when they arrive in SA1 tomorrow for the promotion chasing side contain no fewer than four former Jacks in their ranks with each of them likely to have been featuring in our team had they still been here.
Joe Rodon, Daniel James, Joel Piroe and new addition Connor Roberts are the four players, each of them having been part of our player trading model in recent years and each of them having one eye on the chance to be in the Premier League with Leeds next season.
Relegation from the Premier League may have been confirmed last May but Leeds are a team looking to make an immediate bounce back along with both Leicester and Southampton, themselves both relegated last term. With Ipswich – the season’s surprise package – having faltered in recent weeks, Leeds have moved to within a point of the Saints thanks to a run that have seen them win all six of their league games so far in 2024.
Contrast that to the Swans who picked up their first maximum under Luke Williams at Hull on Saturday and all the form book says that this should be three more points to Leeds as they look to keep up that pressure at the top.
However, the Swans showed on Saturday that they can upset the form book and the better part on Saturday beyond the result was the nature of the performance with the Swans looking as strong as they have done at any point this season. The January addition of pace and width to the squad paid dividends on the weekend and Luke Williams will want that to continue tomorrow and secure what is a very rare maximum return at home.
Leeds 3-0 win over Rotherham at Elland Road on Saturday was their nineteenth win of the season in the league and keeps them on track for a ninety plus point season which normally would be more than enough for automatic promotion although such is the form of the top three then it may only prove to be enough to secure a place in the play off lottery at the end of the season.
Of those four former Jacks it was only Joe Rodon who started that win over Rotherham. Connor Roberts and Joel Piroe found themselves on the bench whilst James is recovering from an injury sustained two weeks back. Whilst for Roberts that was a first appearance in a Leeds matchday squad following his move from Burnley the situation is very different for Piroe who has found himself a little out of favour in recent weeks with match appearance time very limited for the man who Leeds spent large on last summer.
You can very much see the Swans being largely unchanged for this game. The nature of the Saturday performance should dictate that and more of the same would be very nice and will at least make a fist of the game which is needed to keep confidence high.
There are still plenty of tickets left in the home areas for this fixture which will also be broadcast on Sky Sports Arena with a 7.45pm kick off.
You can keep updated on the build up to this game with our matchday thread which is up and running for this game. Please take a few minutes or two to appreciate the work that has gone into the thread by visiting it here
