{"id":23392,"date":"2026-02-19T19:26:35","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T19:26:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo76e71539\/2026\/02\/19\/rodon-gruev-and-ampadu-to-start-3-5-2-leeds-united-predicted-lineup-vs-aston-villa\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T19:26:35","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T19:26:35","slug":"rodon-gruev-and-ampadu-to-start-3-5-2-leeds-united-predicted-lineup-vs-aston-villa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo76e71539\/2026\/02\/19\/rodon-gruev-and-ampadu-to-start-3-5-2-leeds-united-predicted-lineup-vs-aston-villa\/","title":{"rendered":"Rodon, Gruev And Ampadu To Start | 3-5-2 Leeds United Predicted Lineup Vs Aston Villa"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Leeds United will face off against Aston Villa at Villa Park this Saturday afternoon as they look to secure a good result on the road in the Premier League. The Whites managed to earn a penalty shootout win over Birmingham City in the FA Cup recently, so they would be full of confidence going into this game.<\/p>\n

Daniel Farke will set his players up in a 3-5-2 formation and is expected to make a few changes to his first team. Joe Rodon, Ilia Gruev and Ethan Ampadu could all play from the start of this game.<\/p>\n

Defence<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Lucas Perri will feature in between the sticks for the Whites after he shipped in one goal in his last outing. Farke could name a back three of Joe Rodon, Jaka Bijol and James Justin as they look to keep the opposition at bay during the game.<\/p>\n

Sebastiaan Bornauw will offer cover for the centre-back positions on the bench.<\/p>\n

\"Leeds
BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND \u2013 FEBRUARY 15: Daniel Farke, Manager of Leeds United, celebrates victory following the Emirates FA Cup Fourth Round match between Birmingham City and Leeds United on February 15, 2026 in Birmingham, England. (Photo by Michael Regan\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Midfield<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Ilia Gruev will anchor the midfield along with Ethan Ampadu as they focus on making life tough for the home team at the centre of the park. Brenden Aaronson will play just ahead of them as the attacking midfielder for the Whites.<\/p>\n

Gabriel Gudmundsson will try to catch the eye as the left-sided wide player, while Jayden Bogle hopes to give a good account of himself on the right flank. Both of them will be instructed to perform their defensive duties well and make some overlapping runs out in the wide areas.<\/p>\n

Ao Tanaka, Sean Longstaff and Wilfried Gnonto will have to settle for a spot on the bench as they wait for their chance to influence the game in the second 45 minutes if needed.<\/p>\n

Attack<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Lukas Nmecha and Dominic Calvert-Lewin will lead the charge for the West Yorkshire club in the final third. Both of them will have to combine well if they want to threaten the Aston Villa goal this Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Joel Piroe will have to be content with a spot on the Leeds<\/a> bench as he waits for his chance to influence the game in the latter stages if the Whites are in need of a goal by then.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leeds United will face off against Aston Villa at Villa Park this Saturday afternoon as they look to secure a good result on the road in the Premier League. The Whites managed to earn a penalty shootout win over Birmingham City in the FA Cup recently, so they would be full of confidence going into […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12815,"featured_media":23393,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo76e71539\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo76e71539\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo76e71539\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo76e71539\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12815"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo76e71539\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo76e71539\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo76e71539\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo76e71539\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo76e71539\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo76e71539\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}