On Saturday, Leeds United will travel a 400 mile round trip to Ipswich Town’s Portman Road. 3500 Whites fans will make that journey to the home of the Tractor Boys to see what has turned out to be an important match.

Not only is this game the first after a humiliating FA Cup exit at Newport County but there are other factors. This game is important for several reasons…

Saiz Matters

We’ve played without Samu Saiz on occasion before, once at a time when we were flying (Away at Cardiff), and more recently over the Christmas period when some fans thought a £60m bid for him was imminent from Barcelona. However, this is the first of a 6 game ban and the question now is how will United re-organise knowing he will be absent for such an important and lengthy period?

Ailing Ayling

Leeds United have issued a statement stating that Luke Ayling could (could) miss the rest of the campaign through injury. Despite being slightly off form of late and coming in for criticism from some sections of the crowd, he remains one of our most important and committed players.

His omission will be a big loss.

Playoff place on the line… in January

Just one place and one point behind us in the Championship table are Sheffield United. They are odds on to take the honours in the ‘Steel City derby’ at home vs. Sheffield Wednesday on Friday night. Should that result come in for Blades fans and we do not take all three points at Portman Road, we will lose our play-off spot. With the above mentioned players missing from our team, we could struggle to regain that place, bearing in mind a very tough February schedule.

However, although it would be a brave man to stand up in front of Leeds fans and say Saiz should miss a game due it being too physical for him, perhaps the Ipswich Town game may have been too physical an encounter for him to display his skills. I can only assume that’s why he was left out against Cardiff. Yes, on that occasion the Whites lost, but the league position shows Ipswich don’t possess all the attributes of Cardiff either. I feel with Saiz’s ban taking effect, perhaps it’s time to try to meet fire with fire and play with a more physical and dogged approach… for this one at least.

Ayling’s loss is a big one, but in Gaetano Berardi United have the perfect understudy. I feel confident that he will stand up to the physicality of the Ipswich attack. He was one of the only players worthy of any credit in Newport game and is of course United’s leading scorer for 2018.

In what was Berardi’s increasingly familiar left back role up steps Laurens de Bock. Having only made one appearance for Club Brugge this season, he won’t feature this weekend (he returned to Brussels on Wednesday) but hopefully we see him against Millwall. He has big shoes to fill if you consider him Ayling’s replacement for the rest of the season.

This game offers a chance for the Whites to make amends for the brutal FA Cup loss and re-group, in a new line up, for the coming fixtures… without key players.

Key battle

Watching from the South Stand, I thought McGoldrick was a real danger for Ipswich in the home fixture. He showed he still has pace and never gave up the running, bagging a goal in the process. He has gone on to score eight goals with three assists for the Tractor Boys this season.

However, we have a man that doesn’t give up. Pontus Jansson will have the measure of McGoldrick should he enter the box. Jansson has regained the form that made him a fans favourite last season and those efforts have given him the PFA fans player of the month award for December. Jansson made more clearances and tackles than any other player in the Championship in December.

Ipswich Town

When these two sides met at the reverse fixture, United took the prize in an entertaining and eventful 3–2 victory. In the end, Leeds had to hang on leaving Mick McCarthy, Town’s Manager, rueing missed opportunities.

Watch McCarthy’s post match interview below… parental consent required.

Since then, Ipswich have had an indifferent season. They are currently in 12th position and on 36 points (7 behind Leeds). They’ve scored 39 (two more than Leeds) yet conceded 39 compared to Leeds’ 28.

Their top scorer is Martyn Waghorn (10) followed by Joe Garner (8) and David McGoldrick (8).

Kieffer Moore left Portman Road to sign for Barnsley and young Irish striker Aaron Drinan finally made his deal permanent after his switch from Waterford.

Injuries and suspensions

Ekuban still has no return date, whilst Ayling could miss the whole of the remaining campaign. Saiz is to miss 6 games through suspension and will not feature. De rock is reportedly back in Belgian whilst Pennington has an illness. Stuart Dallas should be back in action.

For Ipswich, they have a long list of injuries including Emyr Huws who is out for the season, Tom Adeyemi and Teddy Bishop are both out with Hamstring injuries whilst Tristan Nydam may not have recovered from hip and groin injuries. Jordan Spence is suspended however Tommy Smith should be back in contention after illness.

Form

Leeds: W| W | W | L | D

Ipswich: W | L | D | L | L

Head to Head

From 34 meetings, Ipswich have won 16, Leeds 11 and 7 games have been drawn.

WHAT

Ipswich Town vs. Leeds United

EFL Championship Fixture

#IPSLEE

WHERE

Portman Road, Ipswich

LUTV, BBC Radio Leeds, Elland Road beam back, International Listings

WHEN

Saturday, 13 January 2018

3:00pm BT

WHO

Leeds United’s predicted starting XI

Wiedwald, Anita, Jansson, Cooper, Berardi, Phillips, O’Kane, Alioski, Roofe, Hernandez, Lasogga

Ipswich Town’s predicted starting XI

Bialkowski, Iorfa, Chambers, Knudsen, Kenlock, Connolly, Hyam, Sears, Bru, Celina, McGoldrick

ODDS

Leeds 6/4

Draw 9/4

Ipswich 15/8

PREDICTION

Getting in a left back was more than timely, yet we all know a striker is what is clearly needed. I feel that, as pointed out, even without Saiz and Ayling we should be able to cope in this tough fixture. Yet up front can we do the business? We may get an opportunity and score but keeping Ipswich at bay will be TC’s focus. Draw 1–1.