Leeds United team news as Daniel Farke suffers double injury blow ahead of Manchester City

Longstaff and Stach were signed to compete with Ao Tanaka for the "eight" roles alongside a holding midfielder of Ethan Ampadu or Ilia Gruev.

But being without both could cause manager Daniel Farke to think about a different approach against Pep Guardiola's City.

"Anton Stach will definitely miss the Man City game due to his following of the concussion protocol, so he'll just be allowed, if everything works in our favour to return back to team training on Sunday," confirmed Farke, who is under increasing pressure after his side dropped into the Premier League relegation zone for the first time last week.

"Sadly, Sean Longstaff also will miss the game. He's out with a calf injury. He has suffered this during the last game.

"It's not good news, (he will be out for) four to six weeks, so we'll miss him for a while.

"Sebastiaan Bornauw's got some MCL problems. There will be a late call about his availability, and we'll see if he's able to join us in team training tomorrow (Friday). We'll make a late call with him. All the others are available."

Farke hinted he may consider a change of formation in the first of three games in a week against Champions League opposition. Chelsea (Wednesday) and Liverpool (the following Saturday) are the others.

"It's always an option for us and I don't like to speak too much about it in public," he said. "Last season, whenever it was necessary, we also changed our base formation, sometimes several times during the game.

"I've also done this during this season. I don't like to highlight it too much in my post-match analysis, because this is always a bit like fishing for compliments, proving what a genius you are as a manager or whatever.

"But for me, it's also not like the base formation who will win the game. For example, Leverkusen has won against City with a 3-5-2 in the league.

"All the teams who have beaten Man City so far have played in the four-man formation. It's not about the base formation. It's more like how you live it and about the principles that you have to bring on the pitch."

Farke was again in defiant mood when asked if he feared for his side's survival hopes in a run of one win in seven matches.

“We will go there without fear and I’m confident and fully convinced we can finish 17th in the Premier League or higher," he insisted.

“We’re fully prepared that this situation would happen and there were fears and speculation even after we got promoted last season.

“We want to be the first in 25 years to establish this club at the highest level.

“I see how spirited, how tight and how united the lads are in the dressing room.

“I’m a big believer that you get back what you are willing to invest.

“I prefer that all the pressure is on me because it means it’s not on the players.”