Leeds United: Title test against Burnley

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00:00Well, moving on to speak of favorites, of course, we have an international break to

00:05come but then we've got the small matter of an early title game, I suppose you could say

00:13I know, started the league, perhaps in the way they would have wanted. But Burnley along

00:20with Leeds are promotion favorites. Burnley perhaps whilst having started well have faltered

00:27Leeds having faltered at the start have now got going a little bit. So yeah, it's actually

00:32quite an interesting game coming into it. And you wonder, does the international break

00:36maybe stop the momentum of both sides? Well, more so Leeds at least. But yeah, coming into

00:41it, it's an interesting one. I'm not really sure how to read it. I mean, obviously, I

00:46know I've just said there that Leeds are perhaps more of the form team at the moment, even

00:50though two weeks ago, you probably would have thought the other way around. It's a big game

00:54already, isn't it? It is definitely. Yeah. And if I tell you this, I mean, obviously

00:58we're speaking quite early ahead of the game here. But if I tell you that Leeds have been

01:02chalked up as four to six favorites, you might be surprised at that by how short they are

01:07on the batting for that one. I mean, because myself looking at it when I saw that, I thought

01:12blimey, they really are fancied for this one. But I can sort of see why. But equally, you

01:17know, this will be... I don't think there's anything wrong whatsoever with saying it's

01:22an early sort of like, you know, title clash, top of the table clash, whatever you want

01:26to call it, 6.0. Why not? I mean, that's what football's all about, you know, to get excited

01:30and build games up. And why not? And they are both up there towards the upper reach

01:33of the table already. You're right. They haven't had the ideal, perfect starts to want it.

01:37But nevertheless, they're both up there very much in the mix. And look, I think it would

01:41be an absolutely massive, massive surprise if Leeds and Burnley weren't both very much

01:45in the race for automatic promotion come the end of the season. I mean, if not the actual

01:50top two come the end of the season, I mean, that's probably the way most people would

01:54see it. And, you know, it's not the acid test, but it will be like a massive sort of barometer

02:00of where both sides are at, you know, early on in the season. I mean, I think you've summarised

02:06it pretty well, really, that Burnley sort of started off a million miles an hour and

02:09have stuttered a bit, whereas Leeds have probably gone the other way. So it feels like they've

02:12probably got the momentum. There's probably two main things to this. Number one is the

02:15international break, which you took dead right to hit on. Both clubs obviously have got internationals.

02:20I mean, from a Leeds point of view, they've got a stack of them, you know, they've got

02:23like, I mean, it's almost the whole first team just about, and we're not going for every

02:28single one of them, but most of them are on international duty. And we've seen what international

02:32breaks have done with Leeds before in terms of coming back with injuries and, you know,

02:35and messing up momentum and stuff. So that's the first thing to keep an eye on, basically

02:39how the players come back and what shape they come back and whatever. So that'll obviously

02:44need to be considered. The other thing is injuries. Leeds, obviously, as we speak, aren't

02:47too bad at the moment. Obviously, Bamford and Dan James. I think Burnley, when you go,

02:50I think they've got 10 at the moment. So, I mean, they've got a massive squad, you know,

02:54so they can probably deal with it. But equally, I mean, 10 injuries is 10 injuries. So I mean,

02:57that's definitely going to sort of like, that's definitely going to start them a little bit.

03:00So they're two things to look at, really. You'll have old faces, obviously, Connor Roberts

03:05at Burnley, Jadon Anthony's there now as well. So that'll be interesting. Lyle Foster's a

03:08very good player for them. He'll need watching out for. Josh Brown will start the season

03:13well. Scott Parker, obviously, they've got a manager who's very ambitious and wants to

03:16be going places and stuff. He took a lot of time out of the game to come back there

03:19and make no mistake about it. He'll want to be going in there and finishing the top two.

03:23It's as simple as that. And, you know, it's a difficult game. But I mean, you know, Leeds

03:28are at home. I mean, obviously, if you could play the game straight away after the bats

03:32about wins are bad, then you'd be taking real fresh momentum into it. You just hope the

03:36international break doesn't stall it that much. But yeah, you know, it's a massive game.

03:41There's no doubt about that. The other thing with it is as well, because it's Saturday

03:44lunchtime, it actually gives Leeds a chance to go into the top two. Again, it's very,

03:47very early on. But that is the bottom line. When they'll go second, certainly ahead of

03:52Watford and West Brom play and put a bit of pressure on them. And it does very, very quickly

03:57take shape, though. I mean, you know, it feels like a matter of minutes ago, we were talking

04:01about the start of the season. This will straight away be five games in. Then, you know, a couple

04:05more games and they go to Sunderland. It does start taking shape very, very quickly. And

04:09yeah, it's early to say a six-pointer. But I mean, Leeds are already one point ahead

04:13of Burnley. And if they were to beat them, that's four straight away, you know, a four-point

04:16gap at an early stage of the season. And I don't think there's any way you can look at

04:20this Burnley team and think they're not going to be in the mix. So if you can get yourself

04:23four points clear of them early on in the season, then great. You know, and that'll

04:26obviously be the aim. And they're seen as favourites and the pressure will be on Leeds.

04:30Every single game this season, they'll be favourites. I think the only game looking

04:34at that that they won't be favourites in is maybe Burnley away. But to be honest, given

04:38the prices of this one, I mean, a lot will depend on then. They'll probably be favourites

04:42even for that if all continues to go well. So, you know, the pressure's on, but they've

04:45got the squad to do it. As I say, fingers crossed over international breaks and injuries

04:49and should be a good game. But yeah, I mean, you'd have to fancy Leeds to do it, I think.

04:54I think you're right, Lee. Yes. Well, I think you've summarised that quite well going into the

04:58international break. As I say, a little while now until we next talk about Leeds and then we

05:04next watch Leeds play. But yeah, I don't know whether this break is perhaps a bad time or not.

05:13Well, certainly I don't think a good time, given the fact that they are two wins of the bounce.

05:17It's got to hope that Daniel Farker uses it constructively and creatively to make sure that

05:22they are fit and ready for that game against Burnley. But until then, we'll be back. Lee,

05:28you're off on holiday, so enjoy that. I will be. I'll be watching the Burnley game

05:34in the old-school style of hopefully with a pint in hand, cheering them on and stuff. So,

05:38yeah, we shall see how they go. But it'll be a good game. Then we'll be back for that one

05:42and after that we shall see how we go. Indeed, we will. But until then,

05:45thank you all very much for listening and for watching. We will see you next time.

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