Assessing Leeds United’s start to the 23/24 Championship season so far
A grade for LUFC so far.
Transcript
00:00 And just assessing Leeds in the Championship so far, their start to the season, obviously five games in, six points, they've managed to win one but they've only lost one as well.
00:13 Is it sort of a case of how you look at it, whether it's the glass half full or half empty? What's your take from what you've seen so far?
00:20 Yeah, I think if you hit the nail on the head, there's basically two ways of looking at it, isn't there?
00:23 But I suggest the probably best way to look at it is sort of like glass half full, really, because you've got to look at the way that they've had this summer transfer window.
00:32 I mean, talk about a crazy window in terms of players coming and going, well, going mainly, really.
00:37 I mean, obviously, we shouldn't say that because they've made some very, very good signings. But I think it works out as I think there's 22 exits in the end.
00:42 It's basically two teams of players. Yes, some of them were youngsters, but also some of them were very, very big players as well.
00:47 You had people like Rodrigo leaving and all the rest of it. I mean, Tyler Adams, huge exits and stuff.
00:53 And so that was always going to be extremely hard to overcome. Daniel said himself, Farquhar, when he came in, it'd be a bumpy start to the season.
01:00 He must have. That's probably what he envisaged, really. I don't know if he knew quite about how many lone exits there would be and stuff.
01:05 But yeah, so it has been a difficult start to navigate. On the flip side, I suppose you would look at it and think, well, actually, they had a reasonably easy,
01:13 if there is such a thing, start to the season in terms of the fixtures, in terms of like, you know, they haven't come up against a Leicester yet or a Southampton or something like that.
01:21 Yes, they had Ipswich, I suppose, which was a difficult one. And lo and behold, that's the only game they got a victory in, the 4-3 one.
01:26 So, yeah, I mean, I think what you would say is they would obviously rather have more points on the board. There's no doubt about that.
01:33 I mean, there are, you know, you look at games like the Wednesday one when they could have got all three. Didn't happen.
01:37 Birmingham was very, very disappointed, the sole defeat. But there's only one defeat, like you say. So they are building. It's a work in progress.
01:43 I don't think, I think everybody always knew that this team would get better and better as the season went on.
01:48 And the bottom line is if they're on those six points, I mean, you know, it's not like anybody's running away with it already.
01:52 No one's on 15, obviously Preston are the surprise package at the moment on 13, Ipswich and Leicester on 12, Norwich and Southampton on 10, you know, of the sort of teams you look at.
02:01 So it's not like they're a million miles behind. They're still third favourites, 8-1, 9-4 to get promoted.
02:08 And I think that's probably about right, really. It's one of those ones where, you know, you could see it clicking and you could see it happening and you could see them going up.
02:15 But equally, you could see it taking time. It just depends how quickly it comes together, I think.
02:19 And also it does really just depend on how quickly, how well they take the chances, Charles, to be honest.
02:24 I think that's always going to be the key with this team. You'd probably give it, I think, probably like a C/B, something like that.
02:29 Purely because of the fact that, like, obviously, you know, especially given the fixtures, you would think, well, you want to be on more points than they are.
02:35 But this was always going to be a very, very hard start to the season for Leeds, purely because not so much of the fixtures, but in terms of the sheer number of players going out, how unsettled it's been.
02:44 Daniel Farker's done a fantastic job. So I think from that aspect, you could even upgrade the C to sort of like a B or something like that,
02:50 which might sound like a mad thing to say when you look at where they are on the table and how many points they're on and the games they've had.
02:55 But I think there's always going to be the feeling they're going to get a lot, lot better. Transfer window.
02:59 I think the bottom line with that is it probably dips down a little bit right at the end because of losing Sinisterra.
03:03 But what can you... The bottom line is, I think it's almost unfair to rate this transfer window based on this transfer window only because the transfer window,
03:12 what's happened has been because of the loan exit clauses, relegation exit clauses, and they are already there, you know, so disastrous in terms of like those being put in the first place.
03:20 But the way Leeds have handled it, the recruits they've got, you know, obviously nine players coming in, some very good signings as well.
03:25 I think you're floating around the B/C area or something like that. But the bottom line is, you know, needs to be making sure it's AA+ by the end of the season.
03:32 - Spar mate.
03:33 Spawn mate.