Good Morning. It's Wednesday 13th November and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road Leeds plot Firpo successor Leeds interest in Archie Brown, the left-back from Gent, appears to be intensifying as the Winter transfer window draws near. With Junior Firpo expecting to return to Spain next Summer, the Whites are looking for a long term successor for the No 3 shirt. At 22, Brown still has bags of potential whilst closing in on 50 appearances for the Belgian Pro League giants. His contract with Wouter Vrancken's side doesn't expire until 2027, but that has not put off potential suitors from England, including Leeds to track his progress. Brown has real pace, and is physically strong on the ball. He loves to get forward down the left flank whilst also taking his defensive duties seriously. Not sure where this leaves Isaac Schmidt, unless they keep him as a utility player The Whites are also believed to be keeping tabs on Sunderland full-back Dennis Cirkin, though much will depend on whether the Black Cats can keep up the pace at the top of the Championship come January, and are willing to negotiate on their £15m appraisal. please log in to view this image Fans divided by Rothwell influence Since being given his chance to shine, Bournemouth loanee Joe Rothwell has more than covered his costs at Leeds Utd. The former Manchester Utd rookie was thrown into action following injuries to Ethan Ampadu and Ilea Gruev alongside fellow new recruit AO Tanaka. Together they have provided better attacking statistics than the defensively minded first choice pair, prompting murmurs that returning where they left off may not be as straight forward as once thought, even though many fans still see Rothwell as a temporary stop gap! If Leeds do make it back to the top flight, they will need experience, and with over 250 first team appearances Rothwell offers consistency, reliability as well as mastering set-piece duties. Failure to build properly, and callously get rid of the stragglers can be costly, as Southampton, routed to the bottom of the Premier League are finding out! Rothwell is surplus to requirements at Bournemouth, and will be a free agent next Summer. Is he doing enough to win a permanent deal should Leeds win promotion this season? please log in to view this image
Morning, Rothwell has been excellent. I like the way he drives forward with the ball trying to make things happen. Not sure if can call him a ‘master of set-pieces’ though. More like he’s the only one capable of taking them. Can’t believe we don’t appear to have anyone left-footed able to take a corner or a free kick. Need both options otherwise it’s so predictable. We used to have an overload of left-footed outfield players. Now it’s only Struijk and Firpo - and they won’t be on set-piece duties any time soon. Of course there’s also Gruev (who’s not very good at them anyway) But I can’t see him taking Tanaka’s place when he returns. A problem that needs addressing.
I’ve been pleasantly surprised at Rothwell’s performances, and would hope that with more minutes he’ll improve further. His set piece delivery, has been mixed, at best. On the question of next year, it’s a difficult one for nearly the whole squad, should we get promoted. Few have shown PL quality, either because they’ve not been there, or have been not been first choice at the clubs, when they have. To survive it is likely we will have to upgrade possibly 4 or 5 positions, and be a team that relies on being better than its constituent parts. It is the latter part that will imo, give us the best chance of then staying up. There are a good number of poor to middling clubs still in the PL and all we need to do in the first year is be better than those.
Morning all Ipswich took the best the Championship had to offer (Excluding our three who left) and they’ve not been playing too badly but it still shows the divide. Whoever gets promoted, it will take a small miracle to survive. Last season I’d hoped for promotion with Drameh, Cresswell, Summerville, Rutter, Gnonto, Ampadu and Gray providing a good base of players ready to step up. Farke didn’t rate Drameh or Cresswell, we sold three others to PL teams, hard to imagine what a Leeds team in the PL would line up like
I think Farke summed up the change in our midfield fairly accurately when we lost both starters within a week... Tanaka and Rothwell offer more on the ball, Gruev and Ampadu offer more off it. Rothwell has a sense of urgency on the ball I like... he looks to move it quickly... but there seem to be long periods where he's not in the game. For a balanced midfield you would would think when all fit it would be one of Amps/Gruev and one of Tanaka/Rothwell. Of the 4 Tanaka looks the 'all-rounder'. My gut would be, Amps/Tanaka as starters - Rothwell comes on if you're chasing the game and Gruev if you're closing it out. There you go, sorted!
Has anybody watched training? Do we practice set pieces at all. Corner kicks fail to beat the first defender and we go years between scoring from them, especially headers.
Not sure about that, I’ve still got a Leeds player from about mid 70’s unrecoverable from a broken leg.
Super glue used to work well on those back in the day. Maybe that's what should be used on Bamford's injuries
