Good Morning. It's Friday 8th November, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road...
Joffy eyes loan move
Joe Gelhardt is keen to leave Elland Road on loan in January, with West Brom already leading the race for his temporary signature. Joffy 22 has fallen way down the pecking order over the past couple of seasons after a promising start to his Elland Road career. Lack of game time has severely hampered his progress, and now finds himself fourth choice behind Piroe, Joseph and Bamford.
The amount of talent that slips the net is shameful. We're not expecting every fledgling talent to become an Archie Gray, but at-least give them that opportunity; if not at Elland Road, then elsewhere, on loan.
He had somewhat of a successful spell with Sunderland towards the second half of their 22/23 campaign, even though he got asked to play out of position after an injury to Ross Stewart. Despite a lengthy injury list, the likes of Joffy, Debayo and Crew are rotting on the bench, with a rare cameo appearance here and there, as apposed to playing every week in the lower leagues.
Guilavogui pulled out all the stops to win a new contract
Whilst the majority of footballers spent a relaxing Summer living it up in exclusive sun drenched resorts, Leeds new boy Joshua Guilavogui was enrolling on a rigorous training and fitness program in Dubai, hoping his hard work and dedication would be enough to win him a new footballing contract.
The versatile 34yo won over the trust and confidence of Daniel Farke and coaches during a week long trial last month, after long term injuries to Ethan Ampadu and Ilia Gruev left the Whites midfield short of numbers. He has already gained more league minutes than Joffy, Crew and Schmidt. According to renowned elite training and fitness coach Nicolas St Maurice...
They all have different starting points. Josuha, when he started working with us, he had been working in the gym and doing running by himself. But he’d done less time on the pitch because, by yourself, it’s more complicated. Depending on what they need and the stage they are at with their fitness, some guys will come to us and go out on the pitch three or four times a week. Some will do less but more in the gym if they are coming back from injury and they might do treatment with our guys, too. The pitch sessions are becoming more popular because it’s more fun to train with other players.
It’s more competitive and better for everybody. We keep the groups small in general, between four and six players. On this occasion, we had all first-division players looking for new teams working together, all from different countries. It’s more fun for them to work together and because of the friendly competition, when they’re doing sprints or drills, they push a bit harder each time. When they’re doing the aerobic and cardio work, they get better results.”
He is a serious professional player. He was already at a good fitness level. He’s tall, when you look at his body type — similar to when I worked with Antonio Rudiger at Real Madrid — when you look at them, you don’t know how strong they actually are. But when they’re pushing people around and moving weights in the gym, you realise how strong they are.
I was surprised, we do sprints at the start of each workout to get everything fired up and he was winning the races. He was against seven other top players including some who are in season and playing games who were training with us during the international break and Josuha was beating them. I was impressed that he was right up there after a few months just training by himself.
The cost of ball retention
Unsurprisingly ball retention rates pretty highly on the demands Leeds gaffer Daniel Farke puts on puts on his players, but at what cost? I'm sure we'd all agree that punting the ball 50 yards up the pitch is not the way to go, but surely, neither is continual sideways or back passing. Millwall showcased what a long hopeful ball from the half-line semi circle can do - it may be ugly, but it's effective.
Even as the minutes ticked down on Wednesday evening, Leeds refused to deviate from plan A! Why is this? It's not as if Leeds are deadly at ball retention in the final third. In-fact, Leeds have been dispossessed 157 times this season so far in the final third, more than any other Championship side (though its fair to say that it doesn't take into account the unprecedented amount of times they have attacked in this area).
This prompts the question, why don't Leeds have a plan B, and more importantly, can they win promotion without it?
