Leeds United caution over Adam Forshaw is prudent but his unexpected comeback is already a sensational story - YEP 2/12/21
Leeds United’s head of medicine and performance Rob Price has a pair of masters degrees and experience with the FA, Liverpool and FIFA but rebuilding Adam Forshaw might be the most astonishing addition to his CV.
By Graham Smyth
Price’s importance to Leeds was never more evident than when
the Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020, because he got out ahead of it and took
action to ensure the club were ready when lockdown halted all football and
normal life in March 2020.
Marcelo Bielsa’s players missed each other and the Thorp
Arch environment but did not miss a beat when it came to staying physically fit
and ready for the eventual resumption of the Championship season.
It was around the time that coronavirus was beginning to
make an appearance in the UK news cycle and Price was putting his plans into
place that Forshaw travelled to the Steadman Clinic in Colorado for surgery on
a hip injury that had plagued him since September 2019, keeping him out of
action.
Valentine’s Day 2020 was the day he went under the knife and
he emerged from the operation feeling like a new man, yet a global pandemic,
promotion to the Premier League and an entire top-flight campaign all took
place without him playing a single league game for Leeds because his battle to
get fit again was hampered by setback after setback.
Throughout all of it, there were positive noises, optimistic
briefs from the club and tentative hints that a comeback was close, without the
sight of Forshaw’s name on a senior teamsheet.
Outside the club, there were doubts that he would return at
all and, inside it, there were doubts he could be the player he once was, such
was the length of time he spent on the sidelines.
“To be fair and sincere, I didn’t expect him to come back to
who he was before,” said Marcelo Bielsa this week.
That was why Price and the head coach were so cautious over
Forshaw’s reintroduction when it eventually happened this season.
Watch back our Q&A... đŸ‘‡ #lufc https://t.co/gGZbjdbrzI
— Leeds United News (@LeedsUnitedYEP) December 1, 2021
Niggles that crept in late last season when he played once
for the 23s and again this season after his comeback in the Carabao Cup might
have given an impression to supporters that it just wasn’t to be for the man
Andrea Radrizzani highlighted as the club’s ‘new signing’ in midfield, but
Leeds insisted they were an expected part of the process.
But no-one, possibly not even the player himself, could have
held a reasonable expectation of what has transpired over the past few weeks.
Forshaw has not only started the last four Premier League
games without issue and lasted 90 minutes in three of them, but he’s played
with a freshness and an intensity that has been genuinely transformative for
Leeds.
He even managed it in a pair of back-to-back 90-minute-plus
appearances in the space of four days.
Against Leicester City, Brighton and, most notably, Crystal
Palace this week, he was the midfielder Leeds have been crying out for.
The thing that was always spoken of when Forshaw’s absence was
discussed in the 2019/20 season was control, the way he moves around the pitch
moving the ball to retain possession.
With him in the side, there appears a far greater chance of
Leeds enjoying a measure of control, than they did earlier this season without
him.
He’s playing a box-to-box role effectively and intelligently
without being blessed with breakneck pace.
His ability to keep the ball under pressure, to receive and
retain it in less-than-ideal scenarios and even the flashes of creativity and
attacking intent in the final third we’ve seen, are all so significant for
Leeds.
Don’t call him a new signing though because he’s miles ahead
of where any recent addition would be in their understanding of the system and
each role’s requirements.
He pops up all over the pitch too. He was there on the left
wing to help Daniel James and Junior Firpo work the ball and themselves in off
the touchline and into more dangerous central areas on Tuesday night.
He was there chasing down possession in the middle of the
park right to the end at Brighton on Saturday, clocking up a greater distance
covered than any other player. To do what he did against Palace so soon after
doing what he did at Brighton can be considered sensational, near miraculous in
fact and a story for Price to tell in guest lectures and podcasts long after
his time at Leeds eventually comes to an end.
Leeds and Forshaw are still cautious, there’s very much a
sense that he should be allowed to get a serious number of games under his belt
before making too much of his comeback and that is prudent because the demands
of Bielsaball and the Premier League are great.
December’s run of games against elite opposition and
midfields packed with world beaters will be a test of Forshaw’s ability, form
and fitness.
But what he has achieved to date is a good-news story
already too wholesome and staggering to ignore.
“To have achieved [his previous form] in the succession of
games, he deserves to be valued by those who helped him get healthy and for
himself and his affections,” said Bielsa after the win over Palace, nodding in
Price’s direction.
“I don’t include myself in that contribution. I never
expected him to come back this way.”
Forshaw is an unexpected boost at an important time and long
may that continue but, having missed 82 games, every one he plays is a triumph
for himself, Price and Leeds.
