When Adam Forshaw was injured at the end of pre-season it was all doom and gloom for Leeds United fans. A key player out before the season even starts, but we had need not worried. Mateusz Klich saw the open door, stepped in and has ended up back on the international scene within a month.
The same opportunity is now set to be handed to Tyler Roberts. The youngster has had an interesting few weeks, a surprise call-up to the Welsh national side under Ryan Giggs was followed by a debut, replacing Gareth Bale and then another appearance just a few days later. This will be a huge confidence boost to a player who has barely kicked a ball in the last eight months. It seems he will get another huge opportunity this weekend.
TEAM NEWS: Leeds United’s Tyler Roberts set to start in place of injured Kemar Roofe at Millwall. Gaetano Berardi, Pablo Hernandez & Patrick Bamford all injured. Hernandez out for more than 3 weeks. #lufc
— Adam Pope (@apopey) September 13, 2018
There’s no point in trying to make this seem like we have loads of hidden options because we don’t. It’s either Tyler Roberts or Ryan Edmondson on Saturday and the latter is a huge risk. Although physical Edmondson is just 17 and still finding his feet in the under 23’s, throwing him in at Millwall in a crunch game isn’t a great prospect. Roberts was named by Marcelo Bielsa today, a huge hint he’ll start the game on Saturday, a chance for him to announce himself at the club.
Although the injury to Roofe isn’t the end of the world the Bamford one is certainly a huge issue. Tyler Roberts will need to be used in the forward role now, one he was initially brought in to play. With the Roofe injury being minor we can look at this as a chance for Roberts to get some game time because two cup games aren’t going to get the best of any players, especially not one who has returned from such a bad injury.