Joe Gelhardt will arguably have been amongst Leeds United’s most frustrated last weekend as took his seat in the Tottenham Hotspur changing rooms following the full-time whistle. The 20-year-old was named on the bench for the clash and he watched on from the sidelines as the goals flew in for both teams.
It was a frantic contest but the scoreline, in truth, looked beyond doubt when Gelhardt finally received the Jesse Marsch nod in the 89th minute of the game. His brief will have undoubtedly been to try and make something happen in stoppage time, but he had hardly touched the ball when referee Michael Salisbury put his whistle to his lips and blew for the final time.
Heads were bowed as United left the field, having squandered a lead three times, and Gelhardt will have been as disappointed as the rest of his teammates as they prepared to go their separate ways for the World Cup break. However, his extremely short cameo in north London provided a pretty accurate summary of his season so far under Marsch.
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The forward, simply put, just hasn’t had the minutes required to find form and kick on this season and he has had to watch on as other young players have moved themselves into the frame. As such, while he has every right to enjoy his time away from Thorp Arch, Gelhardt will return to training on November 28 knowing that he faces one of the biggest months of his young career to date.
Leeds will have a month of solid training before their next Premier League game against Manchester City, with a warm-weather training camp and a friendly or two thrown in to keep them ticking over, but Gelhardt must do all he can to ensure he plays a bigger role over the second half of the campaign.
Last season was, without a doubt, Gelhardt’s breakthrough campaign. He thrived in the senior set-up after shining so brightly with the Under-23s and he came up with the goods. Goals came against Chelsea and Norwich City, but, despite starting games on the bench more often than not, he so often put himself in positions to change games.
His outing against Brighton and Hove Albion was the perfect example of that, digging out the all-important assist in stoppage time to see the Whites claim a point in their final home game of the season. He gave supporters a lift every time he entered the field of play and his challenge as pre-season came around was an obvious one: to push on and continue his rapid rise at Elland Road.
His game time over the first three games was limited to just 13 minutes, but the season started well for him, it’s probably fair to say, emerging off the bench and doing enough to help the Whites over the line against both Wolves and Chelsea and it was his threat that eventually led to Kalidou Koulibaly’s sending off in the latter contest. Those outings pushed Gelhardt into the picture when Rodrigo got injured and he managed to get 44 minutes against Everton and a first start of the season at Brentford at the start of September.
Since then, though, his Premier League game time has been limited to just 38 minutes. He was dropped from the squad completely for the match with Aston Villa, with Wilfried Gnonto getting the nod instead and that frustration was no doubt a driving force behind the brace he scored for the U21s a few days later at Tranmere Rovers.
Marsch has seemed reluctant to bring on forward before the 80th minute since, though, and his confidence looks to have dipped in that time. The former Wigan Athletic man failed to make an impact when given the chance to start last week in the Carabao Cup against Wolves before leaving the field with a slight issue early in the second half.
That Molineux outing came just three days before the trip to Spurs and it may well provide added World Cup break motivation. Gelhardt has plenty of internal competition at Thorp Arch and the goals of Rodrigo won’t have helped his claim for a starting spot, but the striker must do all he can in training to make himself stand out from the crowd once more.
He’ll have chances to impress, with Leeds having a friendly against Real Sociedad already announced, and he must take them with both hands to persuade the head coach that he deserves to play more than just a minute plus stoppage time, as he did in the capital on Saturday. Gelhardt is still very young, of course, and there isn’t a lack of belief in his potential and talent at Elland Road.
The five-year contract he was handed in summer highlights that faith and the club certainly believe he has a big role to play in the future as they continue to plot his path towards becoming a regular starter for the club. At present, though, it just feels as though Gelhardt has hit the first rough patch of his fledging career and he must strive to send a clear message of intent to his head coach in the coming weeks to ensure he gets the minutes his talent deserves in the new year.
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