The #LUFC Breakfast Debate (Friday 9th December)

Good Morning. It's Friday 9th December, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road


Klich thunderbolt seals Leeds win

Leeds came from behind to beat Elche last night, and lift the Festa d’Elx Trophy, but it was far from the easy jaunt they had expected. Rooted to the bottom of La Liga, winless, and with only four points on the board from their opening 14 games, the Alicante based outfit were not expected to put up much resistance; yet they dominated the first half to such a degree that the statistical heatmaps looked more like forest fires, breaking out uncontrollably in the Leeds half.

They deservedly took the lead on the stroke of half-time, when Josan latched on to a long diagonal ball, slicing the Leeds defence in half. With only Hjelde bothering to track back, the veteran forward had the time and space to pick his target, and open the scoreline with the assistance of the post.

The visitors were only marginally better after the break, but the overall difference between both teams is that Marsch's team took their chances. They equalised on the hour mark. Harrison's perfectly executed through ball allowed Greenwood to nip in front of the defenders and provide an easy tap-in for Gelhardt who up until this point had been starved from service.

Leeds made six changes in the last half hour, and it was one of his substitutes that made all the headlines. Dropped by his Country, and languishing on the bench for large periods of time this season, Mateusz Klich proved there is life in the old dog yet with a spectacular 25 yard screamer that proved to be the winner.

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Leeds hold their breath on Summerville injury

Inform forward Crysencio Summerville faces a spell on the sidelines following a collision with John Nwankwo during the early stages of last night's friendly between Elche and Leeds Utd. Both players had to be withdrawn, but it was Summerville who attracted the most concern, as he was helped off the pitch by the Leeds physio's, clearly in agony.

The Netherlands under-21 international has scored in each of his last four top-flight appearances, and has proved more than a capable replacement for Sinisterra, who remains on the treatment table. The extent of Summerville's injury will not be known until tests are done later on today, but early signs are not good. According to match commentator Tony Dorigo:-

“That does not look okay at all, that is not good news. It’s how gingerly he was actually walking, that’s the worry. He jumped up quickly, but walking back, he has felt it. The most important thing is go off straight away, limit the damage.”

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Eight first team players out

Following Leeds 2-1 win over Elche, Leeds Manager Jesse Marsch gave a full assessment on the walking wounded. Robin Koch, Patrick Bamford, Junior Firpo, Diego Llorente, Sonny Perkins, Luis Sinisterra, and now Crysencio Summerville are all sidelined through injury, but it's Meslier's absence which is more concerning.

The 22yo shot stopper has glandular fever, and is not expected to return to training until a week before the Manchester City game. Should he not recover in time, and with Tyler Adams suspended, Pep guardiola could have a field day!

“Illan (update) you guys call it glandular fever, we call it mono,” “We're trying to be safe with him, but also measure him appropriately and see. “It'll be close when we can get him back into training days to a week before Man City." "Junior Firpo wasn't as bad as we initially thought, so he actually travelled here and he will be close to training next week." “Patrick Bamford had a successful surgery. We think he'll be ready in about 10 days." "Robin will be ready to train in the week. Hopefully, Cree’s not too bad."

“Diego's hand: he had successful surgery and they say two weeks after the surgery he can start participating in training so that shouldn't last too long. For the most part, we should be able to get most of the guys back in training before we play our first match against Man City, maybe even 10 days before.” “Sonny Perkins, maybe a little bit of a calf issue, but hopefully it's not so bad.”

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Morning all

Jesse might regret blaming injuries on past regimes. Luckily for us and Jesse it is mainly out of form players who are injured. Even if fully fit we look better when Llorente, Bamford and Firpo are no where near the starting 11.

Summervile or Sinisterra - We could really do with one or both back.

 

Morning plebs. In Jesses words "Junior Firpo wasn't as bad as we initially thought". That should shut up a lot of you lot, I always had faith

 

Under-training seems to cause as many problems as overtraining. Would be nice if a journo could get an interview with Rob Price and ask about these things. Price met with Bielsa daily to discuss every player and hes a medic, so wouldn’t allow over-training yet the media love having a go about it. Our team is now unfit and getting injured too….

 

He's not allowed. I already approached him. He told me that all info regarding injuries etc have to be released by the club.

 

Ask me. You know I’ll be straight with you

 

That's not good news about Meslier as that could impact him for a while. It never rains but it pours and the injury situation just gets worse!

 

Whether marsch needed to make the 'overtraining comment' is one thing.

But this is groundhog day doc. Price has admitted in interviews that they 'pushed the boundaries' - they felt the extra fitness gained justified the higher injury risk. You can argue we got promoted off the back of it. So it worked for the club - but it did involve pushing the players to the limits. Some bodies deal with that better than others.

People seem to struggle with the concept that battering players can have long term effects. Let me give an example and directly quote Rob Price on the subject of Patrick Bamford. Marsch was criticised when bamford ruptured his fascia last year...

Price said: “As all of the stats show, Patrick has put his body on the line for Leeds United for a number of seasons, he has played with a plantar fascia injury for the last 12 months and despite treatment and a prolonged period of rehabilitation, the injury has progressed from a partial tear to a full rupture." So, he was playing injured under bielsa.

Maybe people need to look at injuries to players who previously trained under bielsa v new signings. To see whether some are potentially hangovers from the previous regime. Key word is potentially - this isn't bielsa bashing. Most over-training issues (if they are over-training issues) are resoved through rest - as a lot of it is being mentally shot as well as physical - which is why marsch focused on improving morale rather than football last year. But some guys bodies are just beaten up like an old race horse.

We signed 9 players i think in the summer. I didn't see whether perkins was a kick or muscular injury last night but prior to last night, the only injured summer signing is sinisterra and his foot injury is an impact injury.

Reality is high pressing style of play from both marsch and bielsa is pretty tough on bodies and likely increases risk of both impact injuries and muscular ones compared to some other teams.

 

Re Meslier - as an ex-glandular fever sufferer it's very difficult to put a time on recovery. Some people are ill for just a few weeks, for some its months. I was hospitalised by the fcker.

At least Robles as looked an able deputy in what little we've seen of him

 

Sorry to hear but that's what I thought when they said he would be back for the Man City game. It will be a waiting game but he needs to recover properly whatever happens next.

 

Very good post Milky

 

Milky the one thing missing from your post is that this season we had pre- season and a few games before getting 16 days off in September and then another 6 weeks off since November 12th. Hardly flat out is it, yet we have similar numbers of injured?

 

Very decent of you...