Leeds United's Daniel Farke predicting caution as Championship reaches crescendo

The Whites are at Coventry City on Saturday knowing they could be top of the table or out of the automatic promotion places at full time, so tight is the three-way fight for two spots.

Hull City have a fight to get back into the play-off places but weekend wins could lift Sheffield Wednesday and Huddersfield Town out of the bottom three.

Farke expects the upshot to be some pretty tight games.

"If you want to be successful against the really good sides – and we are a really good side and Coventry as well – you need to show compactness against the ball," he argued. "If you open up everything and think you have to over-run your opponent in the first five minutes, it never works.

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"For both teams it's not like a do-or-die game. Sometimes a point can be valuable.

"Sometimes there is a game with many goals when everyone expects a stalemate or the other way around so I'm struggling to give you my predictions for the game but I think both teams will try to stay compact."

Jamie Shackleton has added to Leeds' injury problems with an adductor injury set to keep him out for two weeks, but Farke has not given up on defensive midfielder Ilia Gruev returning against Mark Robins' Coventry.

"We have a few players on the road to come back, Ilia Gruev probably the closest," he said. "He's just limited by some pain and swelling but we will see. Perhaps there is a little chance.

"With Willy Gnonto and Connor Roberts they're muscle strains and the doctors said they would be out three weeks, It's already nine or 10 days."