Former Leeds United forward Noel Whelan has warned the Whites that Stoke City will not be expansive at Elland Road and more creativity will be needed against the Potters.
Leeds returned to winning ways on Saturday by beating Blackburn Rovers 3-1 at Ewood Park, shrugging off the disappointment of a 1-1 draw with Luton Town at home on Tuesday night.
Stoke will arrive at Elland Road on Thursday on the back of a comprehensive 4-0 drubbing of Barnsley, but still need points to move away from the Championship drop zone, sitting just two points clear of trouble.
Whelan expects Stoke to take a defensive approach at Leeds on Thursday night and feels the Whites will need to be more creative and show the quality which eluded them against Luton.
"It's going to be a completely different style of game against Stoke on Thursday night", Whelan warned after the win at Blackburn on BBC Radio Leeds.
"But we do have to be a lot more constructive against Stoke when they come because they've got a good win [against Barnsley] and they will be happy taking a point away from Elland Road.
"They won't be as attacking, we know that, so we're going to have to be a little bit more creative, a little bit braver, better quality than we saw against Luton."
However, Whelan is hopeful that the draw against Luton will have shown the Leeds stars that when chances come their way they must take them.
"There should be a lot of belief going into Stoke. Hopefully they've learned from the Luton game that taking your chances is imperative on how an outcome of a game is", he added.
Stoke's goals against Barnsley came courtesy of a Tyrese Campbell brace, a Sam Vokes goal and a Tom Ince curling shot.
Leeds won the earlier league meeting between the two teams, beating the Potters 3-0.
