Good evening, Leeds United fans. Here are your evening headlines for Thursday, November 12.
Beckford impressed with Rodrigo influence
Jermaine Beckford has been blown away by the performances of new Leeds United star Rodrigo, who completed a club-record move from Valencia in the summer window.
The Spaniard has made just four starts this season – scoring once – but has missed the Whites' last two fixtures after testing positive for Covid-19.
And Beckford, who struck 85 goals for Leeds, believes Rodrigo's absence has only highlighted the qualities he brings to Marcelo Bielsa's side
“Rodrigo, mate, this guy is amazing,” he told the Doing A Leeds Podcast.
“I didn’t realise how much went through him until that Leicester game. We just miss him, we miss that creativity, and the ball sticking in that number 10 role.
“My frustration is that we didn’t get him sooner. I desperately can’t wait for him to come back and fortunately, he’ll be back after the international break.”
Ayling details first “murderball” session
Luke Ayling has explained what it was like to conduct the very first “murderball” session under Marcelo Bielsa.
The training drill, which is renowned for its intensity and physical demands, is usually conducted on Wednesday and features a high-octane 25-minute match without a referee or any stoppages.
“We did our first murderball session and he walked out and it just went from there,” the defender told Mundial's Spotify podcast, Giant.
“His staff were going mad, he was going mad, we're running around playing this football session that was the hardest session I've still done to this day. All the boys at the end of the session were hands-on-knees, sitting down, blowing like they've never blown before.
“Our first Murderball, he just said we're just going to play a game. So you play many games in training, XI vs XI, but it's very slow, passing around the back, so we thought this was going to be easy.
“So we get out there and there's about five members of staff standing in the pitch, dotted around. They're just shouting at you 'run, run'. So you're running, you're getting in behind, you've got to get back. 'Back! Back!'
“It's the hardest. Twenty-five minutes doesn't seem long, but it's the hardest session we've ever done.”
Koch’s impressive international outing
Leeds defender Robin Koch started for Germany in Wednesday night’s 1-0 victory over the Czech Republic. And his impressive performance should offer hope to Bielsa going forward.
Koch was dominant in the air, winning more aerial duels than any other player, was comfortable in possession, calmly distributing across the back three as Germany played out from the back, and helped his team secure a clean sheet.
Koch's display in a back three gives Bielsa an option to explore. The Argentine coach has used a 3-3-1-3 formation in the past and could operate in this shape with Leeds when Diego Llorente returns from injury alongside Liam Cooper.
In this formation, Koch could play in a quarterback role in the heart of the back three as he did for Germany on Wednesday.
The impressive outing should help settle his nerves after making several errors in recent matches and could hint at a potential defensive solution for Bielsa.
