Former Leeds United forward Noel Whelan has sent a warning to his old club about the lack of Premier League experience in their squad,
The Whites kicked-off their Premier League campaign with a narrow 4-3 defeat to champions Liverpool in a pulsating contest at Anfield on Saturday evening.
Marcelo Bielsa's side equalised three times but were unable to come away with a share of the spoils, partly due to Mo Salah's hat-trick.
The Argentine has added international experience to his squad this summer with the signings of defender Robin Koch and striker Rodrigo.
But despite the activity, Whelan admits he is worried about the lack of Premier League experience currently in the Leeds squad.
“Yes, but we knew that last season when we got promoted from the Championship, we weren’t going to go out there and buy a full squad of players that have Premier League experience,” he told Football Insider when asked about if the Whites have a lack of top-flight experience in their squad.
“We’ve got to give the opportunity to the lads that have got us there, same as Sheffield United. There’s a lot of players there who didn’t have Premier League experience but look how well they’ve adapted.
“It’s about hard work when you get there. It’s about having the discipline, it’s about being organised, it’s about playing to your strengths while being hard to beat like Sheffield United have been.
“If we can get that kind of blueprint in our squad, we’re not shy of hard work, we press teams and we know it’s a 90 minute game.
“We need to take what we did last year into the Premier League but we know it’s going to be very, very difficult.
“We can’t be going in there scared, we’ve got to realise we’ve got very, very good players in our squad too and they’ve got to stand up and relish the opportunity in front of them.”
