No two players have featured in the Championship more often for Leicester City this season than Harry Winks and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and rightly so. They are two of the club’s best players. But there is an argument to say that neither should start this weekend at QPR.
Although there is so much potential for the league table to change over the next six months, the first 13 games have shown City who their challengers for promotion are. Yes, every win is worth three points no matter who it’s against, but some games are bigger than others.
After QPR, City will then be preparing to host Leeds. It will undoubtedly be their biggest game so far against a fellow relegated side, one with plenty of quality in their team and in good form, despite their defeat to Stoke. They are probably one of three teams, along with Ipswich and Southampton, who still feel they can overtake City.
City’s astounding start to the campaign means they have already racked up a healthy 14-point cushion inside the automatic promotion places to third-placed Leeds. Facing off against Daniel Farke’s side gives them the opportunity to boost that gap.
So it’s a game that City will want their best team available for. The problem is that should Winks and Dewsbury-Hall get a yellow card this weekend at Loftus Road, neither will be available to take on Leeds. Both are on four bookings, and so one more away from a one-match ban.
It is a tightrope that Winks has walked for a while now. His fourth booking came against Norwich, so there have been six games in which he has avoided collecting the yellow that tips him into a suspension. Dewsbury-Hall’s fourth yellow came at Swansea last weekend.
