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Harry Wilson benched, £8.5m ace debuts – Leeds United predicted XI vs Nottingham Forest

LeedsAllOver · Niall Togher · 2026-08-24T20:05:22+00:00 · nguồn gốc

Leeds United return to The City Ground on Tuesday night to take on Nottingham Forest in the second round of the Carabao Cup. This comes after United beat Forest by a goal to nil at The City Ground this past Saturday. This came courtesy of a late Anton Stach free-kick to ensure that we started the new Premier League campaign emphatically. In his pre-match press conference, Daniel Farke confirmed that he will be making some changes to his starting XI that started the season off so well. But this cup tie gives other members of the squad a chance to play and impress in their own right. We all know how hard it can be for players to break into the team under Farke. So the pressure will be on some of our fringe players to impress. Even if it is only early days in the new campaign. Harry Wilson among those who started on Saturday to be rested Harry Wilson, James Trafford and Tarik Muharemovic all made their Leeds debuts over the weekend. But Wilson is the only one of those three I expect to drop to the bench. This is because we have far more options out wide than we do at the back and in goal. I expect Dan James to come into the team ahead of Wilson. Expect Noah Okafor to start out on the left as he continues to work his way back to full fitness. Surely Farke won’t play Okafor for the full 90 minutes. But if the 26-year-old can get around 60 minutes or so in the tank, then that would be a huge boost. Nico Elvedi, who joined Leeds for £8.5million, was the only summer signing not to feature against Forest over the weekend. Despite Farke’s best efforts to sub him on in the dying moments of the game. For this reason, I expect Okafor’s international teammate to slot into the heart of our defence to make his Leeds debut, with Jaka Bijol likely dropping to the bench. Farke shouldn’t be taking any risks in this game. So resting some of our big hitters like Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Stach and Ethan Ampadu would be wise. Of course, there is the possibility that we throw them on in the second half. Predicted XI: James Trafford, Jayden Bogle, Joe Rodon, Nico Elvedi, Tarik Muharemovic, James Justin, Sean Longstaff, Ao Tanaka, Dan James, Noah Okafor, Lukas Nmecha Pressure on Dan James to perform against Forest Of all the fringe players potentially getting their chance to start in the cup, I’d argue James is the one who has the most pressure on him. It’s clear that Wilson, Brenden Aaronson and Okafor are all ahead of him in the pecking order to start out wide when fit. Even Willy Gnonto was subbed on ahead of James for the majority of last season. If we end up signing another left winger too before the end of the window, as is expected, James could find himself way down the pecking order at Leeds. James will likely find starts hard to come by this season, so if he is given what is likely to be a rare opportunity to start against Premier League opposition, he simply cannot afford to squander it.