Here are the latest Leeds United evening headlines on Tuesday, April 12.
Pundit warns of 'disrespect' of Elland Road
Leeds United have put some breathing room between themselves and the relegation places in recent weeks, as they have picked up ten points in their last four games. However, with the Premier League's title race looking like it could go the wire following Manchester City and Liverpool's 2-2 draw at the weekend, the Whites could have a say in where the title goes to.
The end of season run-in was discussed on BBC's Radio Five Live and Micah Richards warned that opponents should not 'disrespect' Elland Road. Chris Sutton had called Manchester City's visit to Leeds a 'tough fixture' for Pep Guardiola to navigate and Richards said:
"Leeds away is tough! Elland Road when it’s rocking. Remember the days in League One, they still had 30 odd thousand there. Don’t disrespect Elland Road, please don’t do that!"
Read more: Former Leeds United forward claims use of Robin Koch in midfield is 'unfortunate'
Marsch points finger at 'overtraining' for injury crisis
Leeds have suffered an almost unprecedented number of injuries this season, resulting in Patrick Bamford featuring in less than a quarter of the available games. Kalvin Phillips, Liam Cooper, Robin Koch and Junior Firpo have also missed significant periods, whilst there have been copious small injuries.
In an interview with TalkSport, Leeds' new manager Jesse Marsch, pinned the blame on the methods of his predecessor Marcelo Bielsa. Marsch said that, "the players were over-trained."
"That led them to being physically, mentally, psychologically and emotionally in a difficult place to recover from week-to-week and game-to-game. I have a very specific methodology in the way I work and I've had a reputation for having high running data in the way we play, but also having healthy, fit and strong players so we can meet the demands we want."
Firpo set for return to training
Elsewhere in his TalkSport interview, Marsch brought positive news on Junior Firpo. The American revealed that the former Barcelona man was set to return to training on Tuesday, giving him almost two weeks of training before Leeds' next fixture against Crystal Palace.
Marsch said : “For the most part, we’re getting healthy and strong with almost the entire group. Junior Firpo will probably be in training today."
He also said that Patrick Bamford was getting 'closer'. However, the striker recently stated in an interview with the BBC that he was aiming to be back fit for the beginning of next season, unless the team needed him.
