Jesse Marsch outlines Leeds United plan for Joe Gelhardt after 'great' display in test match - YEP 1/4/22

Leeds United boss Jesse Marsch has outlined his plan for exciting teen striker Joe Gelhardt, fresh from a "great" display in a Whites "test match".

By Lee Sobot

England youth international Gelhardt joined Leeds as an 18-year-old from Wigan Athletic in August 2020 and the teen immediately began impressing for the club's under-23s.

The striker was then handed his first team debut by former Whites boss Marcelo Bielsa in the EFL Cup tie at Fulham of September last year and the forward has continually impressed when handed further chances in the side.

Just over six months on from making his debut, Gelhardt has still only had two league starts but new boss Marsch has provided a strong hint that the 19-year-old young star is about to play a much more prominent role.

The striker known as 'Joffy' stepped off the bench to score a 94th-minute winner in last month's hosting of Norwich City which presented Marsch's third game in charge and the Whites head coach was then weighing up whether to start Gelhardt in the following weekend's clash at Wolves.

A back spasm put paid to that plan, Gelhardt instead an unused substitute in an epic 3-2 victory, but the teen has since excelled in training this week and Marsch is now without his main striker Patrick Bamford through injury.

Bamford is facing around six weeks out with a ruptured plantar fascia, leaving Gelhardt, Rodrigo and Dan James as the three main striker options in addition to another young forward in Sam Greenwood.

Asked about his approach with Gelhardt given his age, talent and potential, Marsch explained: "We were considering him to start against Wolves and then the whole week he didn’t train.

"First he was going to play against Man U in the 23s match and then we wanted to make an intention for Wolves from the start or more minutes and then he just had this back spasm that prevented him a little bit from training.

"We got him training a little bit last week and then this week so that part’s been good and he has to play.

“Young players have to play in order to improve and he has the quality to do so, so I’m not so concerned about it.

“I believe in him entirely and I know he’s going to get better and better and when we had a little bit of a test match on Friday, he played really well.

“We played basically the first team against the 23s for 45 minutes which Kalvin (Phillips) and Liam (Cooper) both played 45 minutes in that stretch and I think at the end of the 45 minutes it was 10-2 and Joffy played great in that moment.

“He had I think a goal or two and it was a strong performance from the front four guys - they were incredibly powerful and direct and aggressive.”

Assessing how much Leeds would need to change their style of play without Bamford, Marsch pondered: "We wish we had Patrick at 100 per cent, for sure, because I like the way he plays and I like his personality on the pitch, it brings something to us.

"In general, I thought even coming here at this moment or four weeks ago in general was an opportunity, not just from a results perspective, but as we’re building into the transfer window, for me to know more about the roster and the players so that I can have more input to help make decisions on what we need to do for the future.

"That’s where we’re at right now in evaluating the entire attacking situation without Patrick - it’s a chance, it’s an opportunity for me to get to know Joffy more and Sam Greenwood and some of our young players and then to invest in them and their development.

“How much do we need to alter? I don’t think we need to alter too much because I still think we have a really good group of options that have flexibility such as some days when I look at the board and think about training and where do I put Sam Greenwood.

"Sometimes I put them in the 9, sometimes a central 10, sometimes a wide 10, how do I think about Raphinha in different moments and I like that, I like when we can have flexibility with players so that we can tactically alter match plans so we’re not totally to that level of sophistication yet.

"We have a lot to go in order to get us to where I want us to be but certainly the group has flexibility and quality.”