‘Fearless’ Gray takes the eye in pre-season friendly - Yorkshire Post 7/7/22

Football fans go to watch pre-season friendlies for a couple of reasons.

By Stuart Rayner

Many are addicts who have had weeks of cold turkey since last watching their team, others struggle to get into Premier League games. But for all there is the prospect of seeing something different.

There were enough novelties to keep Leeds United’s supporters happy as they filed out after a comfortable 4-0 win over Blackpool.

For starters, there was the venue, which the Whites visited 12 months ago but for a behind-closed-doors game against Villarreal. The joys of ticking off another ground would have been tempered somewhat as queues bunged up outside the turnstiles, forcing kick-off to be delayed 10 minutes.

There were new coaches in the dugout in Jesse Marsch’s assistant Ewan Sharp (Frank Schiemer is becoming a consultant) and fitness coach Pierre Barrieu, once of Sheffield Wednesday but like Sharp also New York Red Bulls.

They might not have been expecting in the first post-Kalvin Phillips game it would be 16-year-old Archie Gray lining up as one of the holding midfielders. The latest member of the Leeds dynasty tends to play further forward but looked the part, thundering into tackles which brought applause from the stands.

“I consider Archie a first-team player at 16,” said Marsch at full-time. “He has cleverness, the flexibility to play in multiple positions, he can run, he sees things quickly, he’s aggressive against the ball and he’s fearless. I think he’s got the full package.

“I’m not the type of person to say we need to take him along carefully – if he shows he’s ready for big challenges like he did tonight, we’ll give him those big challenges. I think he’s a six, eight, 10. I had a good talk with Andy (his dad) in the summer and he thinks he’s good a little bit deeper. I said, ‘No way man, he’s about final plays and scoring goals!’ but he can do all those (deeper) things because he’s intelligent.”

Marc Roca, the only new signing on show, was solid to his left.

In all honesty, they were probably not expecting left-back Junior Firpo to play so well either, having a hand in the first goal before heading the second. His was a difficult debut season but it can be unwise to jump to conclusions too early with players adapting to a new way of life and a different brand of football.

“It’s going to be better than the last (season), 100 per cent, it can’t be worse,” he joked.

Leeds lined up in a 4-2-3-1 with Sam Greenwood in the hole and Jack Harrison and captain Rodrigo wide in the loosest sense of the word as they were often closer to the centre spot than the touchline.

The sun shone brightly and the mood matched it.

There were pantomime boos for Richard Keogh, for the announcement of the delayed kick-off and the linesman’s flag that ruled out Greenwood’s fourth-minute dink over the goalkeeper. A few of the chants towards Keogh, like Pascal Struijk’s tackle on former Barnsley midfielder Kenny Dougall were a reminder there is a limit to how friendly Leeds friendlies are.

The opener came from a well-worked free-kick, Harrison to Firpo to Robin Koch tapping in at the far post.

The second saw Rodrigo force a low near-post save and Firpo run in that direction to head in Harrison’s corner despite Chris Maxwell’s glove on it.

Gray lobbed to Joe Gelhardt, who brought it down well and although it got stuck under his feet, helped it to Rodrigo to score a third on the half-hour.

From a Leeds perspective, the mass changes which ruin the spectacle but are necessary came on the hour, when all seven remaining starters bar Gray made way and he was pushed into Greenwood’s role.

He quickly took an arm to the face, then had his toes stood on after some nifty penalty-area footwork. He soon went off. Patrick Bamford’s absence was apparently pre-planned having played behind closed doors at the weekend, and Marsch said Raphinha trained with the squad that morning as his apparent replacement Luis Sinisterra joined from Feyenoord, and may or may not tour Australia.

Substitute goalkeeper Kristoffer Klaesson made a good save in the final 10 minutes, coming out to Shayne Lavery. By then many had drifted away and the noise had become a buzz of conversation rather than the intense sound of a football crowd.

Those that ducked out early missed the best goal of the night, Jamie Shackleton and Charlie Allen laying on a chance Mateo Joseph swept in after 85 minutes.

Did we learn a lot? Not really but it was not about that or the 4-0 result, just getting back into the swing of it.

Leeds United: Meslier (Klaesson 46); Drameh (Shackleton 60), Koch (Mullen 46), Struijk (Moore 60), Firpo (Davis 46); Gray (Allen 72), Roca (Forshaw 60); Rodrigo (Miller 46), Greenwood (Bate 60), Harrison (McGuirk 60); Gelhardt (Joseph 60).