Venue: Elland Road, Leeds.

Date 10th December 2025

Kick off 2000hrs

Sky Sports Main event

Introduction

Well I get round to doing another MDT as the Boro travel to currently table topping Leeds in what should be a festival of good open football between two I think fair  to say evenly matched teams and certainly a good game for any neutral to watch.

Leeds coming off the back of a 2-0 home win against Derby whilst Boro came away from a credible 1-1 draw at Burnley.

Two enormous away days on the spin with a lot of forum members stating that they would be satisfied with 4 points from the games.

Personally I would be ok with just two points as it means that two of the top 3 teams in the league failed to beat the Boro at their gaff however a win would be so fine.

Form

Leeds winning 5 out of 5 at home whilst we have won 3 drawn one and lost one away from home during the last five away days.

Questions

Is Leeds a local derby or just another ground to play football on?

With the likes of Burnley and Leeds do those teams have an advantage due to still receiving parachute payments?

I saw a Leeds player go off injured against Derby which might be an advantage to us but did we suffer any injuries against Burnley?

Who do you prefer to start ELL or Conway?

How important is Azaz now to Boro?

Can you see an away win for Boro?

A view from Downsouth

As a MDT author you always hope that you can go on on some sort of winning run however I think my authorship will come to an end however I do see Boro getting something from the game and producing a fine performance one that we can be proud of!

Thanks now over to you with your team suggestions and all the gossip leading up to the match.

@AnglianRed remember Tuesday buddy!

 

Hokey Cokey song:

Woah-ohh, doaky doaky,

Woah-ohh, doaky doaky,

Woah-ohh, doaky doaky, 

Left foot, right foot, defenders on the floor

 

Woah-ohh, doaky doaky,

Woah-ohh, doaky doaky,

Woah-ohh, doaky doaky, 

Left foot, right foot, Boros gonna score 

 

 

25 minutes ago, AndrewP said:

Hokey Cokey song:

Woah-ohh, doaky doaky,

Woah-ohh, doaky doaky,

Woah-ohh, doaky doaky, 

Left foot, right foot, defenders on the floor

 

Woah-ohh, doaky doaky,

Woah-ohh, doaky doaky,

Woah-ohh, doaky doaky, 

Left foot, right foot, Boros gonna score 

 

 

This wasn't funny in the other thread either.

Win this and we're still right in the automatic promotion hunt.

Anything else and I'd start focusing my hopes on the play-offs.

I'd probably still be fairly happy with a point anyway.

Edited December 8, 20241 yr by TeaCider24

7 minutes ago, TeaCider24 said:

Win this and we're still right in the automatic promotion hunt.

Anything else and I'd start focusing my hopes on the play-offs.

I'd probably still be fairly happy with a point anyway.

Still along way to go even if we, win, lose or draw this 

19 minutes ago, BoroNBred said:

Still along way to go even if we, win, lose or draw this 

I'd say 8-10 points and a big goal difference would be a very tough ask to make up on a team that you wouldn't expect to slip up too many times.

We'll see though.

Edited December 8, 20241 yr by TeaCider24

47 minutes ago, TeaCider24 said:

Win this and we're still right in the automatic promotion hunt.

Anything else and I'd start focusing my hopes on the play-offs.

I'd probably still be fairly happy with a point anyway.

I think realistically you aim to draw away to Leeds and Burnley then win at home. That narrows the gap to both by 3. We would still have a massive struggle to overtake both of them but Leeds have falling apart in their DNA so it's not impossible. That's also assuming that Sheff Utd are starting to lock up one of the top 2. Wilder appears to be a manager who can keep a team rolling when they're doing well but struggles when things go south. If their owner opens up his chequebook in January they'll probably be ok but they are starting to pick up injuries.

Teamwise, it's going to be interesting. I presume Carrick was resting Ayling for Leeds but it would be harsh to drop Dijksteel after a motm performance and having already scored against Leeds. I wonder if, maybe, we see Ayling at left back and hope his experience can nullify Gnonto. Probably not. If Carrick keeps Dijksteel in over Ayling that will be quite a show of faith in him.

I suspect that Latte Lath comes back in up front and, possibly, McGree on the left. However, we'll be expecting to play more on the counter and with Doak, ELL and Burgzorg we will have a lot of pace. With Rothwell and Tanaka in midfield, I can see us going with Howson over Barlaser but, like Dijksteel, maybe Barlaser has earned the right to keep his place. 

Last season, we went to Elland Road and tried to outplay Leeds which was what killed any lingering chance at the playoffs. This season we have shown we can be pretty compact in defence when we set up and I can see us trying to strangle the game in the first half before pushing forwards in the second. Leeds do have a relatively porous defence for a team at the top but they score freely: if they score once in a game they tend to score again.

My guess is that Carrick will rotate for freshness so we'll see.

Dieng

Ayling - Fry - Edmundson - Borges

Hackney - Howson

Doak - Azaz - McGree

Latte Lath

 

I'll predict a 2-2

Dieng

Dijk Fry Ed Borges

Barlaser Hackney

Doak Azaz McGree

LL

Subs: Brynn, Ayling, Clarke, Howson, Jones, Gilbert, Burgzorg, Conway, Forss/Hamilton.

Minimum of 4pts from next 2 games hopefully. Not fussed what order they come.

Thought both fullbacks were good on Friday, so I'd be keeping them both in.

Only definite change for me would Latte Lath in for Conway.

Would quite like to see McGree back but Burgzorg's alright too.

My thoughts too on Michael Carrick resting Ayling with the Leeds game in mind?

With MOTM Dijksteel, who has performed really well this season, was also MOTM, scored & had an assist in our 3-0 league cup win in September so with that  in mind I hope Carrick sticks with Dijksteel

 

Think the team picks itself really, but I'd go with this

https://ibb.co/5WSFkVq

Not a derby, but it is usually quite an emotionally charged game

Of course they do, Burnley basically have a PL squad still, and Leeds held onto most of their best players

I don't think we did, no

ELL

VERY!

Yes, a tight 1-2 win

Just seen the highlights of the Burnley game.. We really should have won and Edmundson, Burgzorg and LL should be disappointed they didn't score in the second half. Top-2 is by no means gone and when the current top teams come up against other decent teams they also drop points. If we can avoid defeat here at Leeds I think we can keep a leash on the top 2 in the coming weeks and maybe even make up a few points on a couple of them. Strangers things have happened over the festive period. 

For this game I think we'll only make two changes with Ayling and LL coming in.

I'm wondering which kit they'll use, traditional red, or that blue 3rd kit?

17 hours ago, Bruce said:

With Rothwell and Tanaka in midfield, I can see us going with Howson over Barlaser but, like Dijksteel, maybe Barlaser has earned the right to keep his place. 

I don't think Howson has earned a starting position. Whenever I've seen him play this season he looks a yard behind everyone else. Maybe his age is really showing now. Think he is better suited to coming on towards the end when everyone else is starting to show some fatigue. Really can't see why we should drop Barlaser who also made a really good assist for Dijksteel and put the free kick right on Edmundsons head who should have scored from that pinpoint pass. Didn't see the game though so I can't say if Barlaser was weak tough? How did he do throughout? His stats on Sofascore looked better than Hackney for example.

I wouldn't see Leeds as a proper derby, especially seeing as we're rarely seen as or treated as a Yorkshire club by most of the country, but it's always had a lot more bite to it than other matches.

I expect a lot of clubs feel like that though because of the ingrained dislike for Leeds United amongst many football fans, it'll just be another match to Leeds fans.