Facundo Buonanotte
Leeds United boss Daniel Farke learnt a lot from the club’s FA Cup triumph over Birmingham City last Sunday. Before the game, he mentioned that he was not going to risk some first team players returning from injury.
So the team that played against Birmingham was a rotated side mixed with a few starters. The home side gave the Whites a tough test, dragging the game to extra time after Lukas Nmecha had given Farke’s side the lead. Heroics from Lucas Perri during the penalty shootout were enough to see Leeds said through to the next round, where they will face Daniel Farke’s former team Norwich City.
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The Birmingham City clash saw some decent performances; Sean Longstaff proved himself on his first full start back from injury, and Lucas Perri showed that he is still good enough to be number one.
Leeds boss gives honest assessment of Facundo Buonanotte
On the other end of the spectrum, some players had terrible performances that afternoon. The most high profile of them was Facundo Buonanotte, who was substituted after just 45 minutes in the game. He started the match poorly after being given his first start since arriving at Elland Road – he had no impact in the game, with Leeds becoming much better when Ethan Ampadu was on in the second half.
Ahead of this weekend’s game against Aston Villa, Farke has touched on Buonanotte’s start to life at Elland Road:
”Sometimes the feeling of excitement is so high you rarely can stand up to it. Haven’t signed Facundo to improve straight away our starting-XI, signed him to improve depth in our squad.
”Spoke openly about it because we want to make sure we keep the pressure high on other options – Okafor, Aaronson, Gnonto and James.
”Hasn’t played for such a long time so we give him the stage and support, we don’t expect him to cut the league to pieces.
”If it works out, great. If not, it’s a loan so not a big risk. Didn’t have his best game against Birmingham if I’m honest, but it was realistic.”
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January signing has to turn things around for his future
It has not been a great start to life for the midfielder under Daniel Farke. But some of the summer signings did take a while to adjust to the first team – Jaka Bijol received criticism in his first few games, but is now a regular starter. Farke even pointed out that there was not really any huge expectations that the player would come out and hit the ground running. But for the rest of the loan period, Facundo Buonanotte needs to perform if he sees a future at Leeds United.