Don Goodman spoke more in his interview with OLBG about Leeds United…
On what Leeds need to do to go one better and the risk with Farke if they have a bad start: “Leeds United need to take inspiration from themselves under Marcelo Bielsa when they agonisingly lost in the play-offs to Derby County despite being, arguably, the best team in the whole league that year. There are similarities in the way they will need to pick themselves up and go again.
“There’s a history of teams losing in the play-offs and bouncing back successfully and I always commend teams that have done so, like Leeds previously, as I played in teams who struggled the season after losing in play-offs.
“It was heartbreaking to see Archie Gray leave and it must have been gut-wrenching for him as Leeds runs through his veins. But it might just cut them a bit of slack and allow them to keep attacking players such as Crysencio Summerville and Willy Gnonto for another year if they can be persuaded.
“The Championship is not as strong as last year, which gives them a brilliant chance to win promotion. Man-for-man, they do have enormous quality throughout the squad and that quality should be enough to give them a chance of winning automatic promotion.
“It’s all about galvanising the squad and making them believe they are the best team in the league. There will probably be a similar feeling around the club to what there was last season after relegation as they didn’t get over the line despite being in a great position with eight games to go when everyone was saying ‘Leeds will go up’.
“Daniel Farke will be hurting and will be desperate to secure that hat-trick of promotions to the Premier League. There’s a lot of experience in that dressing room and it’s all about getting over the disappointment of the play-offs.
“But when he won the title with Norwich, he didn’t get off to a scintillating start on both occasions. Last season at Leeds wasn’t a great start either but, eventually, you would have put your house on them finishing in the top two. You can recover from average starts.
“Daniel Farke isn’t silly and knows that if Leeds are losing games and playing poorly, then his job will be under pressure. But if they’re dominating games and just failing to score, then I think performance levels become more important than results in the early stages. You know if that performance level is maintained, results will turn and you will start winning.
“That’s why Brentford kept faith in Thomas Frank after a poor start in 2019/2020. It would have been easy for them to panic and look at them now.
“For Leeds it should all be about performance levels at the start of the upcoming season.”
Asked who do you fancy for promotion and relegation from the Championship, he said: “Last season was one of the easiest Championship seasons to predict in terms of who would be at the top as Leeds, Leicester and Southampton all retained a plethora of Premier League-quality players They were always going to be competing at the top end of the league.
“However this season I’m not so confident in the relegated clubs. For Burnley and Luton, it depends on what their squad looks like when the transfer window shuts. Will Burnley keep the likes of Lyle Foster, Luca Koleosho and Sander Berge? If they do, you fancy them to be a force. Will Luton keep the likes of Alfie Doughty, Elijah Adebayo and Carlton Morris? If they do, you’d also tip them to be competing at the top.
“But Sheffield United look like a club in disarray and are coming down from the Premier in a very weak state. A massive overhaul is required for Chris Wilder and his backroom staff. I’m not saying they can’t do it, but he’s up against it at the moment.
“You’d expect Leeds to be towards the top, with the sale of Archie Gray possibly meaning they’ll be able to keep hold of the attacking force that tore apart Championship defences for 80% of the season before falling at the last hurdle.”
“Then with some teams, you don’t really know what to expect from them. You cannot rule out West Brom with Carlos Corberan in charge still, Coventry’s FA Cup semi-final proved a hindrance to their promotion hopes last season, and Middlesbrough ended the campaign very strongly.
“The upcoming Championship season will not be as strong as last season’s, which had the best top-four that I’ve ever seen. That’s going to give an opportunity for some teams to surprise us.
“At the bottom, Des Buckingham has a huge job on his hands at Oxford as play-off winners are notoriously the teams that struggle the most. It’s just brilliant that they’re in the Championship.
“Derby County remind me of Sheffield Wednesday last season as they have one of the oldest teams in the division. Wednesday struggled with the physical side of things early on last year, so it’s interesting to see Paul Warne move on a number of 30-plus-year-olds and bring pace and energy into the club. That gap still needs to be bridged, though.
“I would expect Portsmouth to be the strongest of the relegated clubs and, therefore, I’m looking at the clubs that just about survived. John Eustace has a big job on his hands at Blackburn after they relied so heavily on Sammie Szmodics, it would be some achievement if he could replicate such performances. I’m not sure about Plymouth, and that’s not because of Wayne Rooney, it’s just the nature of them being in the Championship.
“Even Sunderland finished the season winning just two of their last 15 games. They’ve got a new manager in Regis Les Bris, whose background is in developing young footballers but this is the Championship so it’s very difficult for a whole group of young players to succeed and they didn’t have any strikers capable of performing at that level and struggled for goals. Those would be the clubs I’d be concerned about.”
Leeds – Fixtures
Sat 10 Aug H Portsmouth Championship 12.30pm
Sat 17 Aug A West Bromwich Albion Championship 12.30pm
Fri 23 Aug A Sheffield Wednesday Championship 8pm
Sat 31 Aug H Hull City Championship 3pm
Sat 14 Sep H Burnley Championship 12.30pm
Sat 21 Sep A Cardiff City Championship 3pm
Sat 28 Sep H Coventry City Championship 3pm
Wed 2 Oct A Norwich City Championship 7.45pm
Sat 5 Oct A Sunderland Championship 3pm
Sat 19 Oct H Sheffield United Championship 3pm
Tue 22 Oct H Watford Championship 7.45pm
Sat 26 Oct A Bristol City Championship 3pm
Sat 2 Nov H Plymouth Argyle Championship 3pm
Tue 5 Nov A Millwall Championship 7.45pm
Sat 9 Nov H Queens Park Rangers Championship 3pm
Sat 23 Nov A Swansea City Championship 3pm
Tue 26 Nov H Luton Town Championship 7.45pm
Sat 30 Nov A Blackburn Rovers Championship 3pm
Sat 7 Dec H Derby County Championship 3pm
Tue 10 Dec H Middlesbrough Championship 7.45pm
Sat 14 Dec A Preston North End Championship 3pm
Sat 21 Dec H Oxford United Championship 3pm
Thu 26 Dec A Stoke City Championship 3pm
Sun 29 Dec A Derby County Championship 3pm
Wed 1 Jan H Blackburn Rovers Championship 3pm
Sat 4 Jan A Hull City Championship 3pm
Sat 18 Jan H Sheffield Wednesday Championship 3pm
Wed 22 Jan H Norwich City Championship 7.45pm
Sat 25 Jan A Burnley Championship 3pm
Sat 1 Feb H Cardiff City Championship 3pm
Sat 8 Feb A Coventry City Championship 3pm
Tue 11 Feb A Watford Championship 7.45pm
Sat 15 Feb H Sunderland Championship 3pm
Sat 22 Feb A Sheffield United Championship 3pm
Sat 1 Mar H West Bromwich Albion Championship 3pm
Sat 8 Mar A Portsmouth Championship 3pm
Wed 12 Mar H Millwall Championship 7.45pm
Sat 15 Mar A Queens Park Rangers Championship 3pm
Sat 29 Mar H Swansea City Championship 3pm
Sat 5 Apr A Luton Town Championship 3pm
Tue 8 Apr A Middlesbrough Championship 7.45pm
Sat 12 Apr H Preston North End Championship 3pm
Fri 18 Apr A Oxford United Championship 3pm
Mon 21 Apr H Stoke City Championship 3pm
Sat 26 Apr H Bristol City Championship 3pm
Sat 3 May A Plymouth Argyle Championship 3pm
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