Leeds United: Elland Road test against Hull City

National World - LocalTV

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00:00Of course, to come is a fixture against whole city. Now, I found a whole bit of an enigma

00:06this season because of course, last season, they were, they were pretty good under Liam

00:10Rossini. And yes, they spent a lot of money. Didn't quite make the playoffs, but you thought,

00:15okay, give them another crack at it this season. They might be quite decent. But then of course,

00:18they went and sucked the receiver, which I thought was an interesting move to say the

00:22least season. I'm not really sure to be honest. So it's a game where given, I think if leads

00:29hadn't won a Sheffield Wednesday, you'd think this could be another real challenge, but

00:33I think that they did win at Hillsborough. Is it perhaps, I'm not going to say a formality,

00:38but again, you expect leads to go into this one and they've obviously been fair, but you

00:43expect them to go in and win this game and go into the international break on a high

00:49and the transfer window ends. And then hopefully, then, you know, then the sort of into the

00:53rhythm until, yeah, definitely. I think you summarise it really well. I mean, it basically

01:00quite similar to the Portsmouth game. I think going into that, obviously the difference

01:03with that was obviously Portsmouth were newly promoted and stuff and new to the division,

01:06but I think everybody realises that they're probably going to be all right, Portsmouth

01:10in terms of like, they'll probably be a little bit better than just somebody who just scraps

01:12round at the bottom, got a very good young manager and Hull obviously, I mean, yeah,

01:17you're right. I mean, it just remains to be seen what happens to them. They've lost some

01:19big players as well this summer and obviously they've got the new manager coming in, but

01:23they've got to remember at the end of the day so far, they are unbeaten. I mean, I know

01:26it's only three draws, but they haven't lost yet. So that's the first thing I think of

01:29with this game is like, they haven't conceded many. Well, I mean, they've only scored two,

01:32but they've only conceded two as well. So draws against Bristol City, Plymouth and Millwall

01:36so far. So that suggests they're going to be quite solid and maybe hard to break down.

01:40And that's sort of the tip. They're the sort of team sometimes that comes to Ellen Road

01:43if they're going to do that and sit back and make it hard to break them down. That could

01:48be quite interesting whether, you know, how long they can sort of see that out. I mean,

01:51obviously they'll have ambition and intent to try and do stuff that they've earned themselves

01:54as well. So it might be a frustrating one from that point of view. But I mean, realistically,

01:58like, I mean, obviously after that Sheffield Wednesday victory and the spring in the step

02:02and the feel-good factor and hopefully the signings all coming in and it going well,

02:05then it should all point to like, you know, Leeds being strong favourites and getting

02:09that win to sort of take them on to what would be eight points out of a possible 12. And

02:13that would be, you know, a pretty good return, really. I mean, it should be more. Obviously

02:18they should have got three against Portsmouth, but they didn't. So no point thinking about

02:21what they should have got. But yeah, I mean, they are favourites. I mean, you know, I think

02:25about two to five, so pretty strong odds on favourites. Hull are about eight to one. I

02:29mean, that's probably about right, I'd say. I mean, you wouldn't be massively surprised,

02:33nothing surprises you in the Championship if there was a Knicker victory. But I mean,

02:36you would, you know, you would think Leeds would have the measure and should have the

02:39measure. And to be quite honest, there's no disrespect to Hull, who obviously a lot of

02:43people have a lot of time for and respect for us aside. If Leeds are going to be challenging

02:47for more of that promotion or have aspirations of going up in first or second place. And

02:51they need to be winning the home games and they need to be beating Hull City at home.

02:55So, I mean, it'd be disappointing if they don't get anything but a win. The other interesting

02:58facet to this, obviously, is going to be how many ex-Leeds players have come up. I mean,

03:02you've obviously already got Louis Coyle in there, obviously, who has been Hull's captain

03:06and stuff, ex-Leeds player. Kobe Dram has obviously moved there this summer, so that's

03:10another one. But potentially biggest of all is Liam Cooper. I mean, however long, you

03:15know, how long he's been at Leeds, I mean, it'd be incredible if suddenly he then, because

03:19obviously he's going to sign for Hull City during the transfer window final week. I mean,

03:23whether he signs in time to even feature remains to be seen. But if he does, I mean, to have

03:27all that time at Leeds and then his first game against his old club is against his old

03:31club for his new club, Hull City, would be amazing at Ellen Road. So, that's another

03:34thing to sort of bear in mind. And then, obviously, it's what he does with his team, really. I

03:38mean, obviously, we don't know what signings are going to come in yet as we speak. But

03:42on the back of a 2-0 win at Chef Wednesday, where they played very, very well, what do

03:45they always say? Don't change a winning team. So, I mean, you know, I'd be surprised if

03:49there were many changes. I'd be pretty surprised if they weren't unchanged, to be honest.

03:52Ramazani would be the big one, but I suspect he'll be on the bench and come off the bench

03:56and then try and shine. Bamford's a doubt for it, but he probably wouldn't change the

04:00front line anyway. And then, obviously, any other signings that come in, they're going

04:04to be signing very late, aren't they? Because even now, as we speak, there's only a few

04:08days to go. So, interesting facets to it, yeah. And nothing surprises you in the championship,

04:12as we know. But, you know, you can say that in terms of, well, yeah, we'll look what happened

04:17in the Portsmouth game 3-3. But Leeds should have been absolutely 5-6-7-0 up in that one,

04:21and that's no exaggeration. So, if all things are equal and they take the chances and play

04:26like they should do, they should get a victory before heading into the international break.

04:29But, I mean, we say every time, it's the championships, you never know. But, yeah,

04:33I think realistically in this one, they should be looking at a fairly, hopefully, straightforward

04:36victory. It just might be quite difficult to break down at first. Yeah, I think if we look

04:41back, and I know, obviously, this is in hindsight, but if Leeds had won that Portsmouth game,

04:46I think, to be honest, things would look a lot better now. I know, obviously, you would have...

04:49Yeah. I think the most disappointing result was probably the Middlesbrough one,

04:53perhaps, given how they came to Elland Road and, essentially, in 10 second-and-a-half minutes,

04:59ran riot. Yeah, that was worrying, yeah, definitely. But you're totally right. If

05:04they'd have beaten Portsmouth, which they should have done, that's an extra two points.

05:08If, buts and maybes, definitely maybes, as we'd say, maybe they'll get another one in there.

05:14But they're getting more and more of them. But, I mean, if they'd have got that win,

05:18obviously, and then, let's say, if they beat Hull in the final game before the international break,

05:23then that would have been 10 points out of 12. And then the only two points you would have dropped

05:28are away at West Brom, which most people would recognise as being one of the harder away games

05:34of the season against a team who are probably going to be quite good at home. So, there has

05:38been disappointment, obviously, that first game of the season. The Cup defeat, as you say, was

05:42worrying and there was a lot of boos at Elland Road. But, to be quite honest, now that... I'm

05:45not saying Leeds tried to go out of it. They tried to get through. Obviously, Daniel Fartsell himself,

05:49he wanted to have a run in it. But, equally, you'd recognise the league's more important,

05:53obviously, and needed to make changes. But now that they're out of it, I don't think anyone's

05:57sort of that heartbroken about that. It might make things a little bit easier for them this

06:02season to concentrate on the league. So, generally speaking, it's been a pretty strong start. Yes,

06:06obviously, little bits that could have gone better. But, again, it won't be a strong start

06:11if they get beat at Hull on Saturday. It's only one game, but it does feel like another big one

06:16in terms of solidifying and cementing that good start to the season, really.

06:21Yeah, I mean, as I say, it's not quite been a supersonic start to the season.

06:25Obviously, we must have had five or six now. But it's certainly been all right,

06:30especially if they get the win against Hull. I could see the cogs going around there as I came

06:35out of that one, thinking, which one am I going to finish with? Yeah, I did think I need to get

06:39one more in and that was it. But, yeah, as I say, if they win against Hull, you can quantify this

06:49first part of the season as not completely successful, but, you know, okay. All part of

06:54an Ascot plan, you could say. We should end it there, I think. I think that's a great place in

07:01which to end this podcast, to be honest. I don't think I'm going to top that. Yeah, I mean, very

07:06good. Very good. So, that sums it up for now. We should be back next week with a few less Oasis

07:13puns than we've put in on this episode, at least. But until then, of course, it'll be an international

07:19break. We'll look back at the Hull fixture and what happened there. Then we'll look ahead to

07:23how Leeds will use the international break to prepare for the Championship returning after

07:29that as well. But until then, we will see you all next time. So, thank you all very

07:33much for watching and for listening. Yes, bye now.

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