Pre-season is over and in just a few days’ time, Leeds United will be kicking off their 2022-23 Premier League campaign at Elland Road. Wolves will be the Whites’ first opponents and head coach Jesse Marsch will expect to see an encouraging performance after weeks of hard work over the summer.
The Whites returned for pre-season at the end of June and have played five friendlies since, with three taking place during the club’s tour of Australia. Wins have come against Blackpool, Brisbane Roar and Cagliari, while Leeds picked up a draw against Crystal Palace in Perth and lost to Aston Villa in Brisbane.
Some players have stood out over the last few weeks, while others have struggled to make an impact. As the competitive action nears, Leeds Live take a look at the winners and losers of Leeds United’s pre-season.
Read more: Jesse Marsch hasn't found it easy pushing Rodrigo yet it's clear why Leeds United are keeping him
Winners
Patrick Bamford
The striker has been managed carefully throughout the summer and as the season approaches he looks ready to leave last season’s injury woes behind him. The striker struggled to stay on the field last time around with a string of injuries restricting him to just nine appearances in the top flight.
Bamford has made four appearances throughout pre-season and his last one, against Cagliari, was certainly encouraging as he captained the side and scored twice during a 90-minute performance. He impressed in the first half against Crystal Palace, too.
With Liam Cooper, Luke Ayling, Stuart Dallas and Adam Forshaw all sidelined, he looks set to skipper the side on Saturday.
Rodrigo
The forward was Leeds’ top scorer throughout pre-season, notching five goals and making a clear statement of intent as he looks to prove the doubters wrong. Rodrigo struggled to impress last time around and picked up plenty of criticism for his performances.
However, he’s approaching the new season flying high with confidence, his hat-trick at Elland Road on Sunday was enough to tell us that. He bagged against Blackpool and Palace, too. With Luis Sinisterra sidelined at present, he has the chance to nail down his spot in the side moving forward with encouraging displays over the first few weeks of the season.
Rasmus Kristensen
Kristensen hasn’t played a competitive game for Leeds yet, but he has excelled over pre-season and already looks to be a fine piece of business. The Denmark international was Marsch’s most used player Down Under and he more than looked the part by making his presence felt in attacking areas, defending well, picking out inch-perfect passes and showing a passion that Leeds fans will no doubt love.
He picked up another 90 minutes on Sunday at Elland Road and he looks to be flying heading into the new campaign.
Losers
Mateusz Klich
It seems Klich has fallen down the pecking order at Elland Road under Marsch and it’s fair to say he has cut a frustrated figure at times. He struggled for game time Down Under, making brief appearances off the bench in all three games but failing to really make an impact.
The Poland international was then left as an unused substitute on Sunday against Cagliari, alongside the likes of Ian Poveda and Helder Costa, before being put through his paces on the pitch by a member of the coaching team at full-time. It spoke volumes about his standing within the squad at present and Marsch’s coy response when asked about his future hardly cleared things up.
“I don’t know yet,” he said. “Listen, I really like Mateusz and his mentality has been great. He, understandably, really wants to go to the World Cup.
“All of our guys are trying to figure out how it all fits and it’s an important four or five months for a lot of players. I like having Mateusz here, he’s a great guy and he’s put a lot into this, so we’ll see what happens.”
Liam Cooper
Cooper restarted training this week but he looks set to miss the start of the campaign after struggling to shake off the Achilles issue that has blighted his summer. The defender travelled with the squad to Australia but was unable to train with his teammates ahead of their clash with Brisbane Roar and he was stopped from training altogether in the days that followed.
It was a wasted trip for the skipper, but it won’t have damaged his place within the side and he is expected to step back into the starting line-up when he is fully fit.
Junior Firpo
After a difficult first season with the Whites, Firpo had been hoping to make some progress over pre-season and cement his spot in Marsch’s plans moving forward. Things started well, too, as he got himself a goal in the win over Blackpool in York.
However, he also picked up an injury in that game, ruling him out for the first month of the Premier League campaign and pushing Leeds to enter the market for another left-back. They haven’t signed one yet, but United are looking and that might not have been the case if Firpo was fit and firing on all cylinders.
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