YEP Jury on why Leeds United simply cannot afford to lose Norwich City ‘six-pointer’ at Elland Road

Have a scroll through their thoughts on both the 3-0 loss at home to Aston Villa on Thursday night and the upcoming showdown with the Canaries.

Mike Gill: All challenges will be tough between now and the end of the season but if Leeds can’t win this one then the future looks bleak indeed.

Whether Norwich are doomed or not is of no help to United whatsoever. The Whites need points and need them immediately. Regrets about missed opportunities will not help either and thankfully the element of denial has now vanished altogether.

The Whites are fighting to secure their Premier League status. City’s only Premier League wins since last November have been against fellow strugglers Everton and Watford, so Sunday’s fixture may be a trickier challenge than it first appears.

Dean Smith is a slugger but his constant moaning about the fixture pile up cannot possibly be motivational for his team.

Jesse Marsch has now had nearly two weeks to drill his ideas into his new charges and it is reasonable to assume that this should start to manifest itself on the pitch. Once again we need a noisy Elland Road to lift the side.

Prediction: Leeds United 2 Norwich City 0.

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Keith Ingham: This is the biggest game of the season, maybe the biggest since we were promoted and gives Leeds United an ideal opportunity to put a few more points between themselves and their opponents Norwich City.

New head coach Jesse Marsch has hopefully had enough time with the squad to get over his ‘ways’ and a different approach to the game.

Norwich City have only won four games this season but Leeds need to be mindful that apart from last week’s 4-1 defeat at home to Brentford they have made progress under Dean Smith.

They only lost 2-1 to Liverpool in the FA Cup and although bottom of the table, will be more than up for a battle to cut the gap between them and us to only three points.

As I’ve said many times before, there is no such thing as an easy game in this league.

Lads we’ve backed you 110 per cent and will do until the end of the season, but this game you need to do your bit and get a really important three points.

Prediction: Leeds United 2 Norwich City 0.

Andy Rhodes: After a tricky first couple of games that could have gone either way on paper, Jesse Marsch’s side welcome Norwich City to Elland Road in a game that he would earmark for a potential three points.

In reality, this is more of a classic six-pointer and, with that in mind, the stakes are high.

We have seen that Marsch can organise Leeds into a more compact unit, but in these games anything could happen, and Thursday’s result will only increase the need for points.

Three of City’s four wins this season have come against sides fighting the drop and their 61 goals against is the only record close to Leeds’ 64.

United, then, will sense an opportunity. Being clinical in front of goal was the issue for Leeds last weekend; if they can create the same number of chances you would expect things to happen.

With Leeds’ next four fixtures all being against sides outside the top seven, we find ourselves at the start of what will surely be a season-defining run of games.

Prediction: Leeds United 2 Norwich City 0.

Andrew Dalton: Well, the honeymoon period is over before it began, following the disappointment of Thursday night’s defeat to Aston Villa.

After the encouraging performance of Saturday at Leicester City, the least said about the Aston Villa performance at Elland Road the better.

Attention quickly turns to probably our biggest game since Swansea City and Barnsley in our promotion-winning season when we go up against relegation rivals Norwich City on Sunday it what is a huge six-pointer.

It looks likely that full-back Junior Firpo will be missing, so I would expect Stuart Dallas to be switched over to play in his position.

It will be interesting to see if Patrick Bamford starts after his 30-minute appearance on Thursday night.

Norwich will come with nothing to lose which will make for a very nervy and edgy atmosphere. Ultimately, it’s a game that Leeds simply have to win.

Prediction: Leeds United 1 Norwich City 0

David Watkins: The Aston Villa game was a must-win game for me – I felt we needed a win to get some confidence into the team.

To have been so easily brushed aside therefore is more than a worry.

The good news is Watford and Norwich also lost so it looks like one more team from the group of four above those two will face the chop.

Our position is looking perilous, not only because Everton and Burnley have games in hand but because that performance against Villa suggests it will be hard to find any wins from our remaining games.

That can all change of course with a good performance and three points from the Norwich game and I would go as far as to say that if, God forbid, we lose against the Canaries, then I honestly can’t see a way back unless those other sides continue to lose as well!

A win for us and defeat for Burnley at Brentford would get us back in a fairly decent position as Burnley then don’t play until April 2 when they face Manchester City. This is the last-chance saloon.

Prediction: Leeds United 2 Norwich City 1.

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