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Miscellaneous
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Unprecedented World Cup pause will hand Leeds a lifeline - October 2022
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Leeds United are sinking, and sinking fast. It has become such a desperate
state of affairs at Elland Road that the majority of the Whites fanbase
have now lost confidence in Jesse Marsch with dissent towards the American
freely raining down from the terraces. You can understand why this sense of panic has spread amongst the club’s
supporters given that Leeds have collected just nine points from their
opening 11 league matches this season – this
is their fewest at this stage of a league campaign since 2003/04 when
they managed just eight. On that occasion, no one needs reminding of how
that season ended with Leeds relegated to the Championship. .@willianborges88's first in Fulham colours! ???? Now, if you take into account the dire sixteen years that followed relegation
in 2004 - some of the worst in the history
of the club, you can better appreciate why this aforementioned panic among
the fanbase has morphed into anger; Leeds shouldn’t be in this position
after a summer in which the club’s hierarchy promised to have learned
from their past mistakes. The concerning reality is that they haven’t which means Leeds now face
a season of meagre returns, which, sadly, is a cast-iron certainty. The
only unknown at this stage is whether the Whites will manage to accumulate
the necessary points needed in order to stave off relegation. Ordinarily,
the outlook would be bleak and after spending last season seemingly playing
a twisted version of Russian Roulette only for the club
to preserve their top-flight status in the final two minutes of the
season, you would have to conclude that it would be unlikely that they
would be able to walk away as unscathed from this campaign. In other words,
Leeds’ luck might be up. "OHHH JACK HARRISON!" ?? This would, however, only be the case if the season was sticking to the
age-old dates of a normal Premier League campaign. Leeds would, in any
other season, struggle to arrest the tide after such an ominous start
and would eventually be swept out to sea if the football calendar followed
its usual course. But 2022 is a unique year in the history of the beautiful
game given that all of the domestic leagues around the globe will pause
so that a World Cup can be played over the winter in Qatar. In total, this means that the
EA Sports Premier League will be suspended for over six weeks so that
a winner can be crowned in the desert. You could say that this unprecedented
break will serve as a mini pre-season for clubs who will still have access
to the majority of their squads. As far as Leeds go, they have as few
as five players who will be departing Thorp Arch to play in the World
Cup. What's more, of the five Leeds United
players heading to Qatar, only one plays for a nation that is expected
to progress to the knockout stages, that man is of course Diego Llorente
who plays for Spain. At least, the latest World
Cup betting prices La Roja at odds of just 4/6 to reach the quarter-finals
which suggests that the defender will be in the Middle East for most of
the tournament. As for the other four who play for America, Poland and
Denmark, they all should be landing at Leeds
Bradford Airport in late November or early December once the group
stages conclude. This means that for all intents and purposes, Leeds will benefit from
having most of their players at the club’s training ground over the duration
of the World Cup. Put another way, this World
Cup break will provide the club with a chance to plot a new course
over the second half of the season that will end in the Whites remaining
a top-flight club. At this stage, it’s worth saying that this upcoming
break may tempt the Leeds hierarchy to bring in a new manager so that
the individual in question can benefit from having six weeks to work with
this squad before the season resumes again on Boxing Day. ??? "We are together; we are unified." Whilst that may seem harsh on the very likeable Marsch, the inescapable
reality is that Leeds can’t afford to wait for another chance to course
correct. Is it now or never for Leeds who are at sea and going down, they
must clutch onto this lifeline that is being thrown. |