The Yorkshire Evening Post has discussed Leeds United’s team spirit on the latest episode of the Inside Elland Road podcast.
The Whites have experienced mixed fortunes since returning to the top flight and they will head into Saturday’s visit to former Championship title rivals Burnley sitting in the bottom six of the Premier League table. After starting their season with a narrow home win against Everton that came thanks to a late penalty from summer signing Lukas Nmecha, Daniel Farke’s side came crashing down to Earth with a heavy defeat at title contenders Arsenal.
After collecting just a point from a home clash with Newcastle United and a visit to Fulham, the Whites secured a first away win of the campaign as Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Anton Stach and Noah Okafor all netted their first goals for the club in a 3-1 victory win at Wolverhampton Wanderers.
An Elland Road double-header with AFC Bournemouth and Tottenham Hotspur brought a solitary point as the latter inflicted a 2-1 loss on the Whites in the final game before the second international break of the Premier League season. That left Farke’s side sitting four points and three places above the relegation zone ahead of Saturday’s visit to Turf Moor - and the YEP’s chief sports writer Graham Smyth believes the Whites can take some inspiration from the spirit and style shown by Northern Ireland during their recent World Cup qualifiers against Slovakia and Germany.
What has Graham Smyth said about Leeds United’s team spirit?
Leeds United chief reporter Graham Smyth.placeholder image
Leeds United chief reporter Graham Smyth. | Yorkshire Evening Post
Speaking on the latest episode of the Inside Elland Road podcast, the YEP’s chief football writer said: “I enjoyed Northern Ireland’s performances against Slovakia in a big win and against Farke and Stach’s Germany. How we didn’t get a point against them is unknown to me but that was absolutely great. It made me think a lot about how teams can harness what they’re good at, what they are and who they are to make it really difficult for senior opposition.
“I asked Daniel Farke about that at the press conference today, about team spirit, what can it do for Leeds United in the Premier League? He is absolutely massive on it, he’s absolutely huge on togetherness so that played a big part in the recruitment during the summer and the kind of players they wanted to bring in because they did not want to upset what was a very strong dressing room culture.
“Yes, you can rely on your leaders to enforce that and bring new players into the culture and make sure they adhere to it. If you brought in five or six wild cards who were very difficult to predict as human beings then you’re risking quite a lot but Leeds were quite pleased that they players they brought in were good lads. Gudmundsson seems salt of the earth, Stach seems down to earth other than his Instagram, Calvert-Lewin settled in and made himself part of the group.
“The other thing that game made me think was you can make football very difficult for very, very good technical players, even if it means putting it in the air like Leeds have been doing increasingly this season, going longer to Calvert-Lewin, it makes life very hard for teams that are not physically equipped to play that style of football and I think it’s been really effective for Leeds so far this season.”
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