Two teams riding on a high meet on Saturday when Brighton and Hove Albion welcome Leeds United to the Amex.
The Seagulls secured European football last term whilst the Whites stayed up at a canter following promotion back to the Premier League. After strong transfer windows and encouraging starts to the season, Saturday’s clash will be a fascinating early-season affair.
For the hosts, they are carrying a number of injury concerns heading into the clash. A clutch of players will miss out against Leeds including Yankuba Minteh, Kaoru Mitoma and Jack Hinshelwood and now they are also set to be without full-back Mats Wieffer after he sustained a nasty knee injury in last week’s thrilling 4-3 loss at Chelsea.
Despite having a plethora of players now in the treatment room rather than out on the pitch, head coach Fabian Hurzeler is not using that as an excuse as he looks to set up his side to get over that Chelsea loss and return to winning ways.
“They just continue the performances of last season,” he said of Leeds’ campaign so far.
“They are a very intense team, very aggressive. A clear style of play. They try to attack the box. A lot of players, they show great team effort. So, yeah, overall, a very difficult team to beat. [Daniel] Farke does a brilliant job there and besides that, they have individual quality.
“They have good players who ask for the ball a lot of times. They have Ethan Ampadu who’s definitely a key player for them. They have Anton Stach in the midfield, Tanaka, a few players who always want to have the ball. Who want to be involved in the game.
“They have Noah Okafor, a good one-against-one player. Calvert Lewin is a great striker. Aronsson. So I think they have really, really good balance. They have a really, really good team and a big challenge for us.”
There’s clear respect and admiration from Hurzeler towards his fellow German and that feeling is reciprocated from the Leeds boss.
Ahead of the long trip south, Farke said: “I first came across him in Germany, when we had a friendly against his former side St Pauli. I liked a lot what he was doing, this very interesting, young manager.
“He’s done fantastic for such a young age over the last two years and for challenging periods, he found good solutions. He is a very promising prospect on the manager market when you regard his age. He has already delivered on Premier League level two really good seasons. I rate him very high.”
In terms of injury news for the Yorkshire side, they have suffered a sizeable blow with Wales defender Joe Rodon being out for around eight to 10 weeks with what Farke described as a “serious hamstring injury”. That is offset by the fact that Ilia Gruev should be available for selection once more and the double arrival of pre-deadline signings Jean-Matteo Bahoya and defender Melvin Bard.
