Leeds face Middlesborough at Elland Road in tough Championship battle

Local TV Sport

As Leeds United and Middlesborough are set to clash at Elland Road, with both sides looking primed to secure a play-off push come the end of the season. We’re looking ahead to the tie for both outfits and what a result for either would mean in the Championship table.

Transcript

00:00Dan, looking at Leeds United who face Middlesbrough, now obviously we can cover two sort of regions

00:08with this and look at both sort of sides going into this. Let's start with Leeds United obviously

00:13flying in the championships and really positive runs of form. They obviously let slip to Blackburn

00:20and another playoff rival, but they want to be that side that make the entire jump and

00:25don't have to go through the playoffs again and lose at Wembley, which was obviously devastating

00:29for them as a club and their fan base as well. They want to return to the Premier League

00:33and get wins over the line like against Middlesbrough, who are obviously fifth and second v fifth,

00:39a massive occasion for both. Let's start with Leeds, how do you look at them going into

00:44this game?

00:45Well, it's an interesting one. Certainly Leeds so far this season have relied more so on

00:49their home form and the good news for them is that this game is at home because it is

00:53a really, really challenging game. I mean, we'll come on to Middlesbrough in a moment,

00:57but Leeds away from home, I've only picked up about half amount of points that they've

01:01picked up away from home, to be honest. Sorry. Yeah, they've picked up like at home, they've

01:07picked up sort of double or they've picked up away and they're going to need that home

01:11form in a game like this. Obviously they're coming off the back of a good win against

01:15Derby the weekend, Joe Rodon, Max Verba both scoring and that's really positive for them

01:20as well because they just need that confidence going into a game against the Middlesbrough

01:24side who are scoring for fun a bit at the moment and picking up some really good results.

01:28Leeds this season, because of, as you say, their aspirations are as such that they want

01:34to be in the automatic promotion spots no matter what. They don't want to go to the

01:36playoffs again. They tend not to do well in playoffs, to be honest. They have a really

01:39bad record whenever they get into them. So going forward this season, they want to be

01:46in the automatic promotion spots and they've got competition for that. You've got the likes

01:49of Sheffield United, you've got Burnley, you've got Sunderland, you've got Middlesbrough.

01:53All those teams are very much up there and Daniel Farker knows that and he probably knows

01:58that the away form has to improve, but that's for another day right now. What is important

02:03right now is beating a strong Middlesbrough side at Elland Road. But the one caveat is,

02:08is that when the two sides face each other in the League Cup back in the start of the

02:12season, August time at Elland Road, Middlesbrough won 3-0 and dumped Leeds out of the League

02:18Cup. So it won't be easy.

02:20And what about Middlesbrough going into this game? Obviously, a massive chance for them

02:25to push higher on up the table as well. They're going to want to be in those playoff places

02:30come the end of the season as well.

02:32Certainly, yes. I mean, Michael Carrick, he is starting to build something there. They

02:36did have their own consistency a lot last season and for part of this season as well,

02:40but they've really started to hit the heights now, to be honest. You've got the likes of

02:43Tommy Conway and Latty Lath scoring for fun, to be honest. And in behind them, you've got

02:48Hayden Hackney and Finn Azaz and Ben Doak all playing so well. So it's a big game for

02:54them as much as it is for Leeds and one that they'll think they can get something from.

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