Here are our four talking points from Leeds United’s 1-0 win over Heart of Midlothian at Tynecastle Park in a pre-season friendly as Luke Ayling forces home the only goal of the game
Opening-day clues
Traditionally, managers will put out their preferred starting line-up for the opening day of a campaign in the last pre-season friendly. While Daniel Farke knocked back this theory in Leeds United’s case because of this unique, truncated summer they are facing, there were certainly a few clues.
Farke did at least concede there are not going to be 11 changes to yesterday’s starting line-up when it comes to Cardiff City’s visit on Sunday. More on the goalkeeping situation later, but Luke Ayling seems pretty locked into right-back now.
Sadly for Cody Drameh, this hamstring injury has come at the worst time. It has ruled him out of both the Nottingham Forest and Heart of Midlothian friendlies, giving Ayling a clear run at the right side of defence.
The goal was a bonus for Ayling, who already had the upper hand on Drameh with his seniority, dressing-room status and experience. The former Luton Town loanee may have to bide his time, but Farke will surely give him the opportunities he deserves in the weeks ahead.
Liam Cooper is one of the first names on the teamsheet, while Pascal Struijk, despite playing off his weaker side, got the nod over Charlie Cresswell in Edinburgh. Farke did mention the 90 minutes Cresswell played on Thursday night, however, so that battle will run on into training at Thorp Arch this week.
Left-back may need action this week too. Leo Hjelde did well in Scotland and could be well-placed to start this weekend, but with Junior Firpo still on the treatment table, Sam Byram is waiting in the wings for a contract.
It would be no surprise if the academy product is offered a deal of some description this week in order to be eligible for the Cardiff game. The midfield looks set as it is, for now.
Ethan Ampadu is one of the best players in the side, while Archie Gray goes from strength to strength in midfield. In front of them, Luis Sinisterra and Daniel James have started the last three games in two of the three slots behind a striker.
It would be a major surprise if they were not starting against the Bluebirds. That third slot seems a little more up in the air. Ian Poveda keeps impressing from the bench, while Crysencio Summerville has consistently looked better than Joe Gelhardt too.
The striker situation has thrown things into the air at the 11th hour. The medical assessments will go some way to making Farke’s mind up for him, but one of Georginio Rutter or Patrick Bamford will start if available.
Where he turns after them is harder to say, especially in the blood and thunder of a Championship game. Mateo Joseph or Gelhardt would be the next best natural options in line.
New season, familiar problems
Injuries, as ever, continue to be a problem for the Whites. While selection issues dog all clubs, it only ever feels as though Leeds could conspire to lose both of their centre forwards in the same game at the 11th hour of a hectic, stressed pre-season.
There was already enough on Farke and the club’s recruitment plate in this short-and-sharp summer break, but Sunday only added to that workload. With just two senior additions made thus far, there were already several positions which needed attention, striker included, before Sunday’s game even got going.
Farke has been working flat out for almost four weeks in order to get this team into something like the shape he wants before the season started. Just as he was finding some flow with Rutter and Bamford, the plan is hurled out of the window.
It’s worth remembering the medical assessments have not yet come through on either of the forwards, but Farke was concerned enough to admit this weekend would likely be a tall order for either of them. It would have been tough enough to swallow losing one of them, but to lose both, when there was already an argument for adding another striker to the squad, is painful in the extreme.
Leeds want to hit the ground running in the Championship, but they are now staring down the possibility of playing someone at the tip of the attack with no meaningful pre-season experience up there. Joseph seems to have the best profile to play as that rangier option, or Gelhardt could offer a different skill set.
At the start of Farke’s tenure, the expectation had been Rutter would settle down as a wide option, just as the German had pitched in his job interview. Meanwhile, Bamford’s future was up in the air, with United open to letting the new boss take the lead on where the number nine would be come September 2.
As it is, they have both become the strikers Farke has opted to use through pre-season. Given he had had two options to work with for one role on the team, it is understandable if Farke has felt, up to now, strikers are not as big a transfer priority as, say, a right-sided centre-back or central midfielders.
However, this Bamford injury especially is a warning for the new regime on what lies ahead if they leave this transfer window with no new forwards. As much as everyone wants to see the England international rediscover his finest form, the record shows he has started 26 games across the past two seasons, with eight goals across the same time period.
As it feels like we have said every summer for the past four or five years, United need another striker and cannot rely on what they currently have. These injuries, frustrating as they are, have to ring alarm bells at Elland Road with one month of the window still to address the problem at hand.
Lessons have to be learned from previous years. Bamford, through no fault of his own, breaks down too frequently for a promotion contender to rely on him to deliver around 20 goals in a Championship season.
Darlow will have to bide his time
It would be remarkably ruthless for Farke to replace Illan Meslier with Karl Darlow on Sunday. Meslier has played in the last three consecutive friendlies and kept clean sheets in the last two, while Darlow has been here two minutes and had little time to settle in.
Binning Meslier on the eve of the new season would surely destroy any confidence he has built since his wretched end to last term. The Frenchman is working on his patterns of play with the centre-backs and the smart money would now be on him starting the season as number one.
That will not be news to Darlow, who knows the drill as a late pre-season arrival. Unless Meslier is sold before September 2, the former Newcastle United stopper will have to knuckle down and await his chance.
The 32-year-old was across Thorp Arch and Elland Road on Friday to conclude his transfer before then travelling to Edinburgh with the rest of the team on Saturday. There was excitement and anticipation around seeing Darlow in Leeds colours, but while it was important to spend time with coach Ed Wootten and the other stoppers through the warm-up, playing in the game would have been the big steer on Farke’s thoughts.
In benching the former Forest goalkeeper, Farke has diffused the situation bubbling around the position and thrown down the gauntlet. The shirt is Meslier’s to lose and the hope is they will both spur one another on to better performances and better results for the Whites.
Pre-season stock check
Full-time in Edinburgh effectively brought the curtain down on pre-season with Farke. Pre-season does not technically end until a new campaign gets underway, but this week should look far more normal than the schedule Farke has been using through July.
We are into a conventional week with a competitive game at the weekend preceded by a training and match preparation schedule they are likely to broadly follow until next May. Farke has had less than four weeks on the job, but where has he got them to and what is the state of the nation as we countdown to the big kick-off?
Max Wober’s exit will make it 12 departures, some of which, of course, predate Farke’s July 4 arrival. Ironically, Wober’s is the only farewell which will sting. Rodrigo would have been a welcome component next term, but it was always a stretch to expect a player of his calibre to remain in England’s second tier.
Wober was arguably the only one of the departures you could have seen doing a worthwhile job in the Championship. After committing to sticking around, his U-turn at the first sign of Borussia Monchengladbach interest hurt team-mates and colleagues.
The loss of that dozen cast against the backdrop of just two senior arrivals cannot help but shine a light on how much work there is still to be done in the transfer window. Farke, to his credit, has not pulled any punches in his assessments of the difficulties of this summer in Leeds.
Centre-backs, left-backs, central midfielders, advanced playmakers and centre forwards would be wise bases to target between now and September 1. The former are, LeedsLive understands, currently being targeted with the most vigour by Gretar Steinsson and Nick Hammond.
Liverpool’s Nat Phillips and Manchester City’s Taylor Harwood-Bellis remain under consideration as two of the options in central defence they like.
While the composition of the squad still needs plenty of work as the new season gets underway, there has at least been promising progress with those players in the building under Farke. Manchester United in Oslo is hard to judge because of how little Farke had seen the players and how many stars were still waiting to get into full training with him.
There was the behind-closed-doors 9-1 at Barnsley which very few people can comment on with any confidence. Monaco did see steps forward. By last weekend, there were a lot more players available to Farke and the patterns in play, building from the back, inverting at left-back and bombing on at right-back all developed.
The French would go on to run out winners for the second time in seven months, but it lay the table for the best of the four friendly performances. Forest were matched in Burton and, eventually, thoroughly outplayed.
Meslier was solid, the centre-backs brought the ball out with confidence from the back, the full-backs broke forward, Ampadu played like a Rolls-Royce and Poveda broke out. It was dynamic, fun to watch and there was a steady stream of chances being created.
Back-to-back wins and clean sheets wrapped things up neatly at Tynecastle Park, even if the match itself was not a great spectacle. It is a result which gives Farke a positive framing device for the week ahead at Thorp Arch.
It keeps the momentum and confidence building in the group. As Farke has said himself, it is going to take weeks and months before we really see his vision on the pitch realised, but the building blocks of that have brought reasons for optimism.
