Andrew Taylor has called on the Leeds United faithful to get behind the under-23s as they host champions-elect Manchester City at Elland Road on Friday evening. Taylor's side are just outside of the relegation places by four points but Chelsea U23s below them have a game-in-hand.
The Whites youngsters know that they have a battle on their hands with just two games of the season remaining and Chelsea boasting a kinder run in. The under-23s have had to play a large part of the campaign without some of their best players, such as Charlie Cresswell, Joe Gelhardt, Sam Greenwood and Crysencio Summerville, who have been called up to the first-team.
Leeds are hoping they'll be able to break the record for attendance at the game which stands at 17,000 set by Everton in May 2017. As of Friday night, 12,000 tickets had been sold.
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Speaking to LUTV, Taylor said: "Next week is great, back at Elland Road and a big crowd is going to be there. We know Man City are a very good team. We'll need to be at our best to get a result and we'll be working this week to make sure we are."
The Whites suffered a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Brighton last time out, but the under-23s head coach has full faith they'll be able to turn it round, despite a 'frustrating' afternoon. He added: "I thought we started the game well.
"Then we had a sloppy spell in the first-half. In terms of in possession, we gave the ball away cheaply and didn't really have any movements that we're looking for in the forward areas and defensively, positionally, I thought there were a couple of times a few players were out of position.
"They got the goal on the back of it. Second-half I thought we were great, we dominated the second half and had a couple of chances to score, which would have changed the game dramatically for us.
"I think if we had got the goal we would have went on to win it. I've just said in there to the lads they showed great character after the first half, come out had a go and had opportunities to score.
"We've got to take the positives out of the game and move on to next week. I thought there was some good performances, Noah [Kenneh] was excellent again, Cressy [ Charlie Cresswell ], Leo [Hjelde], we played well. Second-half we played really well and were dominant.
"The whole game was played in their defensive half. We need to tidy up on a few movements and combinations to create more opportunities to score, but on a whole it was a good second-half."
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