Leeds and Bournemouth will face off in a 3pm kick-off which will mark Bournemouth’s former Whites star Lewis Cook’s return to the club with whom he spent over a decade with before signing for the Cherries. Cook has not faced Leeds since leaving the club in the summer of 2016 but O’Neil expects him to thrive and says his Cherries team as a whole will be well versed with what Elland Road has to offer. O’Neil himself faced Leeds as a player and said of Elland Road: “It’s an intense atmosphere. The way the team play this season adds to that as well so for sure you need to be ready and you need to make sure you can deal with what’s coming because they try and make it difficult as they can for the opposition.But the boys have been to some places similar to that already.Obviously Nottingham Forest has a big atmosphere and Newcastle especially so the lads are well equipped to go and deal with that and put on another good performance.”
Asked about Cook’s return, O’Neil reasoned: “There’s a little bit of you that wants to do well in that game but you always want to do well anyway and it’s about the team. Lewis Cook has been brilliant for us since I took over in the Wolves game. He’s been an integral part of every performance we’ve put in so he’ll be big again for us on Saturday, I’m sure.”
PREVIOUS: Gary O’Neil, right, chases Leeds United’s Pablo Hernandez, centre, along with Clayton Donaldson, left, for Bolton Wanderers in the Championship clash at Elland Road of February 2019. Photo by George Wood/Getty Images.