Leeds United have key areas to address against Monaco ahead of 'real thing' versus Man City

More especially when the first opponents for Jesse Marsch’s side on their Premier League return are champions Manchester City.

First, United must negotiate their final friendly against French outfit AS Monaco at Elland Road tonight and while getting valuable match minutes into the likes of USA World Cup duo Tyler Adams and Brenden Aaronson and Denmark's Rasmus Kristensen is a major consideration, building some momentum would be very useful as well.

Leeds have won all three of their warm-up fixtures thus far. Yet a complete display has hitherto eluded them, with United coming from behind to beat Real Sociedad last week.

Their previous win over more Spanish opponents in Elche, again by a 2-1 margin, was far from satisfactory as well.

A splendid goal from a rare outlet in the shape of defender Pascal Struijk helped them beat Sociedad, with Leeds now assigned with boosting their match sharpness and technical levels and stepping things up in their final engagement before Pep Guardiola's City arrive.

Struijk said: "We have had three games now and we have won all of them, so we are going in a positive direction.

"Of course that (fitness) is most important but that is what we also do in training every day. We work hard in training and we work hard on the pitch and then the games.

"Man City are a very good team so we will try to do our best and make sure we are as prepared as possible."

United will still be without several players including Patrick Bamford and Luis Sinisterra, while Illan Meslier has been suffering with illness.

The game is set to come too soon for Crysencio Summerville (ankle).

Monaco will be without French World Cup squad members Youssouf Fofana and Axel Disasi, but Krepin Diatta, Ismail Jakobs, Takumi Minamino and Breel Embolo should be back after their sojourns in Qatar.

The game kicks off at Elland Road at 7pm.