{"id":11694,"date":"2025-08-22T18:55:35","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T17:55:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=11694"},"modified":"2025-08-24T01:00:37","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T00:00:37","slug":"hitting-leeds-for-six","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=11694","title":{"rendered":"Hitting Leeds for six"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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And so to the Stadium of Stone for the first time this season, to welcome newly promoted Leeds United for Saturday’s early evening kick-off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Holics of a certain age will wince at memories of encounters with Don Revie’s ‘Dirty’ Leeds in the early 1970s. What those of the Scottish persuasion call a proper stramash was never more than a Bremner, Giles, Hunter, Charlton, Cooper, Reaney, Lorrimer, Jones, Clarke or Gray tackle away, as they fought us \u2014 I choose the verb advisedly \u2014 to be English football’s top dog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recounting the history of Leeds United and its predecessor, Leeds City, can wait until the game at Elland Road in January. Suffice it to say that the club spent 16 seasons \u2014 16 seasons with a fair degree of turbulence off the field — out of the top flight until the high-octane Marcelo Bielsa took the team back to the Premier League for the 2020-21 season. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He kept it there for one campaign, but was sacked in the February of his second, replaced by Jesse Marsch, who kept it up by a whisker. Marsch was fired the following February, and his successor, Javi Gracia, in May. The old walrus himself, Sam Allardyce, oversaw the last knockings before relegation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Daniel Farke, who had taken Norwich up from the Championship twice and back down once, was appointed on July 4 2023, a few days before Leeds became fully controlled by 49ers Enterprises. That is the venture capital arm of the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers, which is owned by scions of Edward DeBartolo, an Ohio real estate developer who was the progenitor of the post-World War 2 suburban shopping mall. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

49ers Enterprises, which includes Glasgow Rangers in its portfolio, first acquired a minority stake in Leeds in 2018. Like many US owners of British football clubs, it has taken in minority investors. The ownership consortium now includes several prominent US basketball players and golfers, including Jordon Spieth, and Red Bull, now also Leeds’ shirt sponsor. RB’s Global Sporting Director, Jurgen Klopp, presumably has some management involvement with the club. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps that is why Farke switched to Klopp’s favoured 4-3-3 from his (Farke’s) habitual 4-2-3-1 for last Monday’s game against Everton (OK, that was an entirely fanciful segue). Nonetheless, Leeds won on its return to the PL 1-0 with a dodgy penalty, having otherwise failed to turn majority possession into goals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your matchday trivia: the penalty scorer, Lukas Nmecha, was the first Leeds player to score a penalty on his debut since Percy Whipp against West Ham in 1922, although Nmecha didn’t match Whipp in making it part of a hat-trick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Daniel Farke<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Farke spent his playing career in the lower reaches of German football, scoring 76 goals in 109 matches, mainly for his local team, SV Lippstadt, where he also started his managerial career before moving down the road to coach Borussia Dortmund’s reserves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He went from there to Norwich, where, as well as overseeing two promotions and one relegation in four seasons, he set the unwanted record of losing the most Premier League games in succession (15). Russia’s invasion of Ukraine aborted his subsequent appointment at Krasnodar without managing a game. He returned to Germany for a season with Borussia Monchengladbach, whence Elland Road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saturday will be Farke’s 51st PL match. He has won just seven, the lowest win rate of any manager to oversee at least 50 PL games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The opposition<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite losing only one of their final 28 Championship matches last season, Leeds have signed nine new players. All are between the ages of 25 and 28, and add strength, size and experience. One is Brazilian Lucas Perri, who arrived from Lyon to replace the talented but error-prone young Frenchman Illan Meslier as senior glove butler. Perri has been called up by his national squad but not won a cap. Against Everton last Monday, his footwork suggested he may be vulnerable to aggressive pressing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In front of him, the starting full-backs will likely be Gabriel Gudmundsson, a Swedish international, and Reading-born Jayden Bogle. Both are quick. strong and like to push forward. Both looked useful in the first half against Everton, when Leeds overloaded the midfield and dominated possession. However, once Moyes reset after half-time and got service to Everton’s wingers, the pair looked less solid defensively. Farke said in his pre-match press conference that he is looking for reinforcements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pascal Struijk, a Belgian with three Dutch U-17 caps and Indonesian eligibility, and a standout last season in the Championship, will likely start at left centre-back alongside Welsh international and ex-Spud Joe Rodon or Slovenian international Jaka Bijol, bought from Udinese in the summer to add Serie A defensive nous, and could make his PL debut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ao Tanaka, club captain Ethan Ampadu, another of Leeds’ Welsh internationals, and Anton Stach, another summer arrival, from TSG Hoffenheim, started the Everton game in midfield. A lot of Leeds’ play went through the lively-looking Japanese international, who seems a bargain at \u00a34 million from Fortuna D\u00fcsseldorf last summer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of Moyes’s lumpen proletariat inflicted an MCL injury on Ampadu, who will be out until at least the next interlull (unbelievably only a few weeks away). Sean Longstaff, who arrived from Newcastle this summer, may get his first start after coming on as a substitute against Everton. Bulgarian international Ilia Gruev, who came on when Ampadu went off, is another option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Ampadu, Stach, who was a member of Germany’s team at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and is the son of a well-known German TV sports broadcaster, Matthias Stach, can also play at centre back, and tends to lie deeper than Tanaka. Regardless, Arteta is unlikely to give Leeds’ midfield the space Everton allowed them to make hay in the first half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Farke is spoiled for choice when it comes to wingers, although he says he would like a couple more. The young, pint-sized Piedmontese-born Wilfried Gnonto, who has 17 Italy U-21 caps, and even shorter Dan James, who has more than three times as many full caps for Wales despite growing up only 50 miles from Leeds, started against Everton. They will face competition for their places from Jack Harrison, recently returned from a loan at Everton, and Noah Okafor, newly bought from AC Milan. Okafor, who can play across the front line, arrived this week but has been registered for Saturday’s game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leeds picked up Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Nmecha this summer on free transfers after they left Everton and Wolfsburg, respectively. They will share the No. 9 responsibilities with Joel Piroe, the Dutchman who was Leeds’ top scorer in the Championship last season with 19 goals and seven assists. Fan favourite Patrick Bamford has fallen out of favour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether Farke can strike the right balance in using the England international, the German international and Piroe, who was an ever-present last season, and whether the Dutchman finds PL defences as porous as those in the Championship, will go a long way to determining whether Leeds stay up or go straight back down \u2014 as 17 Predictathon players expect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Arsenal<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Havertz’s wounded knee returns us to familiar ground: starting with the injury news. In addition to the German, N\u00f8rgaard is unavailable. Jesus won’t be back before late November. Benny Bianco is 50\/50. Timber’s workload needs to be managed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My two cents are that Arteta will start much the same team as against the Red Mancs, as he looks to build cohesion. Thus:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raya
Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori
\u00d8degaard, Zubimendi, Rice
Saka, Gyokeres, Martinelli.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bench: A strong one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cristhian Mosquera could make his debut, given the lack of a right back who can last 90 minutes. If our captain plays, he will become the 118th player to make 200 appearances for the club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Emirates faithful will want to see the first home game of the season won in style. It is a game we should win. The PL table, which shows the two sides in joint sixth with identical records, belies the gulf in quality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The gentlemen of the turf have us firm favourites, and offer relatively miserly odds on 3-0 and 4-0 home wins. Either score would suffice. I would happily take the scoreline from Leeds’ first visit to Highbury in 1924 with Gyokeres reprising the Jimmy Brain role of scoring four (one from a cross, one 25-yard screamer, one breakaway and one header) in a 6-1 win. It will likely be much closer. Most of all, we want to be on six points at the end of the evening. What do points mean? Points mean prizes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enjoy the game, ‘holics near and far.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And so to the Stadium of Stone for the first time this season, to welcome newly promoted Leeds United for Saturday’s early evening kick-off. ‘Holics of a certain age will wince at memories of encounters with Don Revie’s ‘Dirty’ Leeds in the early 1970s. What those of the Scottish persuasion call a proper stramash was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11694"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11694"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11694\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11696,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11694\/revisions\/11696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}