Marcelo Bielsa will be delighted with Leeds United and their start to the Sky Bet Championship season, with the Whites sitting pretty at the top of the table after four fixtures.  

Leeds have three wins and a draw to their name so far, and will be confident of extending that unbeaten run on Saturday afternoon when they travel to an out-of-sorts Stoke City side, who are currently rooted to the foot of the second-tier.

But, as Leeds know well enough by now, nothing is guaranteed in the Championship, particularly at this stage of the season.

Despite differing starts to the season, Leeds are going to have to be at their best, but annoyingly for Bielsa, he might’ve have to make unwanted changes to his defence.

With that in mind, we take a look at the starting XI we are expecting to see…

In goal, Kiko Casilla will retain his place, with the Spaniard on a run of three consecutive clean sheets in all competitions.

The defence is where the changes are expected to be made, with Bielsa confirming in his pre-match press conference – as reported by Phil Hay – that Stuart Dallas and Liam Cooper are both doubts, but still might play.

If they do miss out, Jamie Shackleton will step in at right-back and Gaetano Berardi at centre-half, joining Ezgjan Alioski and Ben White in the defensive line-up.

In our predicted side, we’ve opted for Kalvin Phillips dropping into the defensive unit, due to Nathan Jones preferring a two-man strikeforce.

That means that there’s a split between Adam Forshaw and Mateusz Klich, with the latter moving further up the pitch into a No.10 role.

Despite an impressive impact from Helder Costa and Eddie Nketiah against Brentford, Jack Harrison, Patrick Bamford and Pablo Hernandez are expected to continue leading the line.

Thoughts? Let us know!