Inside Elland Road: Longstaff and Rodon partnership
Gary McAllister's eye has been drawn to the middle of the park during Leeds United games this season where he's developed a preferred three-man selection.
The Whites went into the summer transfer window knowing they had to beef up Daniel Farke's central midfield options. In the Championship he had a pair of defensive-minded operators in Ethan Ampadu and Ilia Gruev and a pair of more forward-thinking midfielders in Ao Tanaka and Joe Rothwell. The latter departed at the end of his loan with a Championship winner's medal in his back pocket and then moved elsewhere in the 49ers stable to join Rangers. That and a switch to a 4-3-3 formation opened up a pair of vacancies and Leeds filled them with Newcastle United veteran Sean Longstaff and Hoffenheim man Anton Stach.
In Longstaff's Premier League nous and mobility and Stach's size and technical ability Leeds believed they gave Farke more physicality and versatility. So far this season, Ampadu has been a preferred starter as the deepest-lying midfielder and Longstaff has made himself an almost permanent fixture, leaving the third spot open for Stach and Tanaka to battle it out as the more offensive number 8s.
Ten games in, most Leeds fans will have their own thoughts on who should make up the three and McAllister, who graced the Whites midfield 295 times to become a bona fide Elland Road legend, is no different.
"Watching Leeds and generally, when I go to watch anybody, any game, my eye is always drawn to the middle of the park, because obviously that's where I played, and that's the position I know best," he told the YEP.
"It's always interesting to see how the manager is setting that area of the pitch up. I know there's four [options], and Daniel likes to play a three, but I think we're well served in the middle of the park. If we're going to stay up, that midfield three protecting the centre-backs, allowing the full-backs forward to try and create, that's crucial. I think they've started the season well in the middle of the park. I think Longstaff's a fantastic signing. Ampadu is just a good player. I think he's obviously shown last season he can jump and play at the back. He could go and play in a back three. I think he's comfortable sat there in front of the of the two centre-backs.
"Stach's a player who's been interesting, because I think that I've seen him have three, four or five good cracks and it's very rarely you see midfielders coming out in the middle of the park and having a shot, and he's quite willing to go and have a crack at the goal. So I like that. And Tanaka, he's a very able player as well, nice continuity, doesn't go for massive exciting passes but he's very safe and he's tenacious as well. He puts a shift in. I like the middle of the park and the way it's looking, that'll definitely help if we're going to stay in this division. My preference at the moment would have Longstaff, Stach and Ampadu."
McAllister was a player who knew where the net was. He scored 45 times for Leeds during his stay at Elland Road and across his career threatened the 100 top flight goal mark, falling just nine short. It is no surprise what he'd like to see more of from the current Leeds midfield pack.
"We need Stach and Longstaff - who scored a cracker earlier on in the season - to jump out of there and if we can get a few goals through the middle of the park, that would certainly help take the pressure off," he said, speaking with the YEP via UK casino comparison site FruitySlots.com.
"I know there was a wee bit of talk at the start of the season about going up and trying to score goals from set pieces with signings being a bit more of the physical type and big lads. But if you've got a midfielder who can jump in with half a dozen goals, six to 10 goals, it makes a big difference. It takes a bit of pressure off the front men.
"That's the difficulty of coming up from the Championship. In the Premier League it's so much more difficult to score. So if I was being hypercritical, the lads in the middle of the park need to get themselves on the scoresheet."
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