Plymouth Argyle handed fresh injury blows ahead of Leeds United visit as Wayne Rooney makes vow
Leeds United will host struggling Plymouth Argyle at Elland Road on Saturday.
Leeds United have the opportunity to leapfrog into second place this weekend when they return to Championship action against Plymouth Argyle. Daniel Farke’s side are currently tied on points with second-placed Burnley, who are up against Millwall on Sunday.
Heading into Saturday’s clash, Leeds have some fitness concerns after Joe Gelhardt suffered a hip injury during training. Farke has also said there are ‘question marks’ hanging over Daniel James and Patrick Bamford. However, Plymouth Argyle are also managing injury troubles of their own and have been dealt a significant blow ahead of their trip to Elland Road.
Captain Joe Edwards is expected to miss the remainder of the season after suffering a hamstring injury during his side’s latest clash with Preston North End. Centre-back Lewis Gibson will also miss the clash with Leeds after already sitting out the Preston clash, while Ibrahim Cissoko is set to complete his three-match red card suspension.
“We're going through a period where we're picking up injuries. When you get injuries it's a good opportunity for other players to come in and try and stamp their claim to stay in the team,” Rooney told the media in his recent press conference.
The England legend has managed to pull his side out of the relegation zone but the Pilgrims are still hovering close to danger. Plymouth are currently just one point above the bottom three and will be hoping to come away with something against Leeds to aid their survival mission. Argyle are currently one of four teams on 12 points heading into this weekend.
“We’re representing the football club, we’re going to try and win,” Rooney continued. “We’ll suffer at times, we have to be resilient and pull together. When we get chances, we need to try and punish Leeds. We’ll be doing everything we can to do that. For us, it’s another game. Of course, they’re a big club, historic team, but for us, it’s one of three games we’ve got this week.”
After their trip to Elland Road, Argyle will take on bottom-of-the-table Portsmouth in their midweek clash before visiting Derby County next Saturday. Farke had a lot of praise for Rooney in his latest press conference and complimented his style of football, describing Plymouth as a ‘brave’ side, but has stressed that he wants Leeds to dominate the match as much as possible.
"Wayne was a world-class player and experienced everything. There's always a lot of attention on him. He's still a young manager but he has a lot of experience. He is also the type who will never crack under pressure and is used to being in the spotlight and handling expectation and that's what you have to do as a manager. You can see this handwriting in his teams.
“His teams never try to park the bus and go for long balls, they try to play football and I really like that. Plymouth are brave and go for the game, especially in home games.
“They have good offensive options; [Morgan] Whittaker is obviously a key player in the last seasons. They have some threats up front so it's important we don't allow them to play their game with confidence. We have to make them defend. We want to dominate the game as much as possible.”