Friday, September 18, 2020

New on Sports Illustrated: Fulham-Leeds United Preview

Leeds United gained many plaudits for a spirited display in a 4-3 defeat to Liverpool, and Marcelo Bielsa is aiming to take the positives from the defeat at Anfield as his side take on Fulham.

Goals from Jack Harrison, Patrick Bamford and Mateusz Klich were ultimately not enough for Leeds in their first Premier League match since 2004, as Mohamed Salah's hat-trick and a goal from Virgil van Dijk claimed the points for Liverpool.

Scott Parker's Fulham, meanwhile, were swatted aside with ease by Arsenal in their first outing, and Bielsa is confident his side will be putting any negatives from last week's display behind them heading into their first home game of the season.

"Every game is a new story," Bielsa, who is also hopeful defender Liam Cooper will be back from injury, told a news conference. "We will try to correct all the things we did badly against Liverpool and we will try to maintain all the good things.

"A positive performance always gives a certain amount of optimism and a defeat generates sadness. This week the two of those things combined.

"The season is very new and the adaptation of the new players is going to take a while, which is the same for everybody."

Fulham, meanwhile, are aiming to bring Terence Kongolo back to the club after the Huddersfield Town defender enjoyed a fruitful loan spell at Craven Cottage last season.

However, Parker refused to elaborate when asked for an update on the situation.

"At this moment no, not really, he's a Huddersfield player, not our player," Parker told a news conference. "We're in the market to try and bring some players in to improve us."

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Leeds United – Patrick Bamford

Having opened his account for the season at Anfield, Bamford seems likely to start ahead of new signing Rodrigo Moreno on Saturday. The former Chelsea forward has scored in two of his last three Premier League appearances, dating back to May 2017.

Fulham – Tom Cairney

Aleksandar Mitrovic is no doubt Fulham's main danger man, but midfielder Cairney has history against Leeds, having been directly involved in seven league goals against the Yorkshire club (four goals, three assists).

KEY OPTA FACTS

• The side playing at home has not lost any of the last eight league meetings between Leeds United and Fulham, winning the last three in a row. Indeed, in the Premier League, the home team has won each of the last four clashes between the two sides.

• After their 3-0 win over Fulham in June in the Championship, Leeds are looking to win back-to-back league meetings with the Cottagers for the first time since December 2003, during their last Premier League season.

• In the last 31 Premier League matches played between two newly promoted clubs, the away side has managed to win just twice.

• This will be Leeds' first home game in the Premier League since their return to the division; they have only lost their opening home match in one of their previous 12 seasons in the competition – a 0-2 defeat to Sheffield Wednesday in August 1996.

• Leeds are looking to avoid losing both of their first two matches to a top-flight campaign for the first time since 1980-81. Indeed, their defeat against Liverpool was their first ever Premier League defeat on matchday one.

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