How do Leeds United manage Djed Spence correctly?
A big impact in just under 10 mins of the bench against SWFC.
Transcript
00:00 And another new impact signing, Jed Spence, a big impact in just nine minutes off the bench.
00:07 There's obviously a big battle now at right back with Luke Ayling, who's been a stalemate in the team.
00:13 Yeah, 100%. It would be really interesting to see what happens with that one.
00:17 You can't go too much on nine minutes of football, which is all it was ultimately when Jed Spence came on.
00:23 But even in that nine minutes, I left thinking he's got to start him. He looks like a serious player.
00:29 It must have been like one minute before, within one minute of him coming on, that he basically saved the goal with a brilliant tackle.
00:35 And straightaway, he was back up by charging down the other end of the pitch. Just looks powerful, direct, pacey.
00:40 He's confident on the ball, really good touch. I mean, none of this is any slight on Ayling whatsoever,
00:45 because Ayling, as he's quite rightly said, he's been a big mainstay for Leeds.
00:49 Both ends of the pitch, he's scored quite a few goals as well. And him getting forward down that right flank is a big thing for Daniel Farke.
00:54 You can tell that. But I mean, you look at Jed Spence and the way he played there, and obviously Spurs paid a lot of money for him,
01:00 £20 million or whatever to get him in. He's an England Under-21 international. He's already played at Spurs.
01:04 He's basically just a very, very good player. And I think it would be a bit of a waste if you brought him on alone
01:09 and he just basically stayed on the bench and just sort of came on every so often.
01:12 So I don't think that would be the case. I think he's got to start. Whether he starts literally the next game at Millwall remains to be seen.
01:18 And I suppose the thing you start asking yourself is if Jed Spence does start, then where does that leave Luke Ayling?
01:22 I mean, we've seen Ayling play in other positions. He can play a centre-half.
01:25 So that's potentially an option if Daniel might want to do that. I mean, could he even play left-back?
01:30 I mean, possibly, but you'd want to keep him to their best strengths, really.
01:32 So, yeah, it's a fascinating battle as to see what happens with it, really.
01:35 But the bottom line, the conclusion I sort of think you can take from it is that even on that first sight,
01:41 Leeds have got a very, very good player there in Jed Spence on loan.
01:43 And ultimately, they need to make the most of him. They don't want to do what they did with Eddie Nketiah.
01:47 Remember Eddie Nketiah on loan? Obviously, now he's in the full England squad.
01:50 And the problem with Nketiah was he came to Leeds and basically didn't play him enough.
01:53 That was the bottom line. I mean, ultimately, I know they ended up going up eventually under Marcelo Bielsa anyway.
01:58 But you don't want it to be another situation like that, really, where you'd have him as an option off the bench.
02:02 Because, put simply, I think he's too good to just be an option off the bench, really, Charles.
02:06 I think he looks a very good player and I think he'd be hugely beneficial to Leeds if they use him in the right way.