The Magpies travel to Elland Road aiming to extend their unbeaten run to six matches across all competitions when taking on Daniel Farke's side, who have also accrued five points in their opening three league matches.

The German head coach believes a late decision will be made on Fernandez-Pardo, with the Belgian forward targeting his full Premier League bow after making his Magpies bow from the substitutes' bench in last weekend's 2-2 comeback draw against AFC Bournemouth.

Here are some of the boss' main talking points from Thursday's pre-match media briefing at the Newcastle United Media Centre...

On Fernandez-Pardo, who joined United from Ligue 1 side Lille on Deadline Day:

"He is getting closer to starting. We need to be smart with his load management.

"He has had a full training week this week, the first since he arrived. We will need to make a decision on him Sunday or even Monday."

On Lewis Hall, who recorded an assist in United's 1-0 win against Millwall in Tuesday's Carabao Cup third round tie:

"I am in love with what I have seen so far. He is an amazing player with huge potential. He fits in so good to how we want to play football. He's doing an excellent job."

On Lukáš Horníček, who has kept two clean sheets in his last two competitive away outings:

"He has done an amazing job so far. It's not easy, especially for a young lad, to come into the Premier League and performing on a high level, dealing with the pressure. As a goalkeeper, it's something else as well.

"We hope he can continue to progress. I am really pleased with him. He's so calm but so mature as well."

On facing Leeds, who are winless in their last six attempts against the Magpies:

"Leeds United will be a tough away match. They are a top team; their manager is doing an excellent job.

"The atmosphere will be special and we aware of it like we were at the Den. We need to match that, the players will need to match that. If we can do that, along with the support of the fa we can get a good result.”

On his team’s mentality:

"We didn’t have so much training time so far together, a lot of games. I am impressed how fast the players have adapted to us, how open-minded they are and how committed they are.

"Huge advantage if you have these fundamentals in place already."