Paul Green will miss tonight’s match at Blackpool, but otherwise Leeds have no new injury concerns for the trip to the seaside. Neil Warnock is promising a more determined performance from his new-look side than the one we produced at the same venue in April.
The latest on Paul Green is that the midfielder is likely to be missing for several weeks after suffering a knee injury against Wolves, and the club is waiting for the results of some scans before they know the full extent of the damage. Green could be replaced by El Hadji Diouf, although if Warnock wants to start with a more defensive line-up he could move Sam Byram forward into midfield while Lee Peltier switches to right-back.
Danny Pugh could come back into the squad despite being on the transfer list, and Warnock’s change of heart is connected to Green’s injury. If Green’s knee problem turns out to be more serious than we first thought then we will have to hang onto Pugh for the time being, even though Warnock was looking to sell the player a few weeks ago to bring so transfer funds into the club.
The manager knows that whatever team he sends out tonight it will be another difficult game against a side who were recently in the Premier League. He told the official site "I think they're a good side. You've got Ince and Phillips, who is as good as anyone in there, and then you've got Taylor-Fletcher who is innocuous really but he's a threat who you don't notice is there. They have enough armoury, but we have so it'll be good. It's going to be difficult. They are a good side, but we'll take a good following, and we're looking forward to it."
But he thinks Leeds will play much better than we did only four months ago, when our season was fizzling out and a fading team lost 1-0. “I remember thinking that night, ‘it will be nice to come back with a proper team next year. There were a lot of things missing that night and I didn’t like that. We’ve got to look at each game as it comes and try and pick a team to get a result. That’s what we’ll be doing”.
As far as Blackpool are concerned, their major selection issue is whether Matt Phillips should be recalled, after the striker was left out of Saturdays 2-0 win at Millwall to "clear his head”, amid rumours that several bigger clubs were interested in signing him. And as central midfield player Tiago Gomes seems to be struggling for fitness he could be replaced by Angel Martinez, while Kevin Phillips has recently recovered from an injury, but is likely to make do with a place on the bench.
A draw will be a good result for Leeds tonight and I think we’re good enough to get one. My prediction is 1-1.