Daniel Farke has decided to omit Pascal Struijk from his Leeds United line-up for tonight's Championship clash against Watford.

It means Ethan Ampadu will stay in defence alongside Joe Rodon, who has started every league game this season. Struijk lasted the full 90 minutes against Millwall in the FA Cup on Saturday but still waits for his first league start since New Year's Day.

The defender had been out for three weeks with a hamstring injury but made his return against Cardiff City earlier this month, also featuring late on against Coventry City. Meanwhile, Ilia Gruev has been selected to start in midfield for the third straight away game with Joe Rothwell benched. Ao Tanaka starts alongside him.

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Illan Meslier continues his run of starting every Championship game, having kept a clean sheet in 18 of his 31 outings so far. Jayden Bogle scored in United's last league game at Coventry City and is given the nod again tonight.

On the left of defence is Junior Firpo, who was initially benched versus Millwall before coming on in the second half. At the other end, the front four were all either rested or benched against Millwall but each one come back into the line-up tonight.

Daniel James and Manor Solomon begin on the flanks with Brenden Aaronson - starting his 30th straight league match - starting centrally. Top scorer Joel Piroe will look to build on his 13 goals up top. Should he net tonight, it would be the first time this season he has netted in three consecutive matches.

Patrick Bamford is still not yet back from his hamstring injury while Max Wober is set to miss six weeks following his knee surgery later this week.

Starting XI: Meslier; Bogle, Ampadu, Rodon, Firpo; Tanaka, Gruev; James, Aaronson, Solomon; Piroe

Subs: Darlow, Struijk, Schmidt, Byram, Rothwell, Guilavogui, Ramazani, Gnonto, Joseph.