Leeds United went through their last uninterrupted day of training at Oliva Nova on Wednesday with one last session planned for tomorrow before the trip south to Elche. Junior Firpo was spotted at the camp for the first time after arriving on Tuesday, but not in full training with the rest of the squad.
Robin Koch was not taking any risks with the tightness he felt in Tuesday’s session, so he was not out on the grass either. However, the German international remains in contention for the Elche clash.
After the warm-ups, there were a couple of exercises with the squad split into two again. Using small cages for goals, there were attacking and defensive units training their pressing and counter-pressing at close quarters.
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Next, the squad would look to refine their patterns of play in building out from the back. With the width of the pitch split in two, the likes of Cody Drameh and Luke Ayling built up on one side, while Leo Hjelde and Pascal Struijk were on the other, as they would be in a match.
Working out from the backline, diagonal passes would zip into the likes of Sam Greenwood and Marc Roca, as central midfielders, while Rodrigo, Joe Gelhardt, Mateo Joseph and Wilfried Gnonto were then making movements further upfield to receive the ball as central attacking midfielders or strikers.
Jesse Marsch would be vocal once again. While the goalkeepers were going through their own exercises with Marcos Abad at one end, he had to tell the outfield unit not to shoot balls and interrupt the stoppers’ session.
Gelhardt also got an audible volley when he wasn’t on his toes as the number 10 in the playing-out-from-the-back routine. “You have to be ready to move, Joffy!”
Ayling caught the eye once again too. When he smashed one pass through the hole in a mannequin it drew a wry comment from Rene Maric, but the right-back saw talent in being able to nutmeg it.
It wasn’t the last time Ayling could be heard either. The training session culminated in a mini-tournament between three small teams from the squad, playing with two full-size goals and no offsides.
It was heated and it was ultra-competitive. If you needed a reminder of just what hunger it’s taken for these players to get to this level, you could see it in their contention on every individual point.
If a ball went out of play, a player was fouled or the wrong pass was made, you would hear about it. The staff were pushed on decisions the players didn’t agree with. This was football without consequence, but not for them on the five-a-side-size pitch marked out.
Ayling was not happy with one particular call when he was asked to use one of the outside, neutral players (Drameh). The defender was shouting the odds in the direction of assistant coach Ewan Sharp.
There would be a hug for Drameh as Ayling laughed it all off in the next passage of play. Hjelde would later get it in the neck from Mateusz Klich for a pass the Pole wasn’t happy with.
The session wound down with some more optional extras. After smashing balls at goalkeeper Dani van den Heuvel, Darko Gyabi wheeled away to join in with Joseph and Gnonto’s keepy-uppy knock around.
The former Manchester City man gestured for the ball from Joseph, but rather than play along he put his right foot through it and sent it about 50 yards down the field. He ran off laughing.
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