'Something will have to be done' - Ex-Leeds United man on strange Whites predicament and VAR gaff - YEP 14/9/22

Leeds United top flight title winner Tony Dorigo writes exclusively for the YEP on the Whites’ predicament, their one big positive and his experience of a VAR shocker.

By Tony Dorigo

Leeds United find themselves in such a strange situation because we almost never have this sort of break from action, but it is not without its positives.

Clearly, the main one is that our injured boys will now have that much more time to get themselves fit and raring to go.

Rasmus Kristensen was a doubt for the Nottingham Forest game and possibly the Manchester United game too, but he, Rodrigo, Junior Firpo and Liam Cooper could all be ready for selection come October 2.

The downside to this period without games is that you want to keep things ticking over and you want to implement all the things you do in training, in game scenarios.

Now, however, we've got nothing for three weeks and there will be a lot of training.

The Premier League has made a bed for Leeds United to lie in.#lufc https://t.co/jFdFzGZ16Q

— Leeds United News (@LeedsUnitedYEP) September 13, 2022

I think what is important is somehow getting that high intensity 90 minutes or 75 minutes into the boys' legs as often as you can.

Whether it's behind closed doors friendlies or games amongst themselves or even the Under 21s fixtures, something will have to be done.

You can't just keep training because mentally that's tough. Physically, there's nothing quite like a game, and obviously it won't be exactly the same but it's the best you're going to get in the circumstances.

Of course some of the lads will get their match fitness with international sides during the September break.

Pascal Struijk was in the long list for Holland, Mateusz Klich has retained his place in the Poland squad and Kristensen is, despite his recent injury, in the Denmark set-up once again.

There will be others, including some of the younger lads in the 21s, because in recent years we've been so well represented at international level.

Leeds, of course, no longer have Kalvin Phillips to keep an eye on in the England set-up and I suppose the next big hope, certainly going into last season, would have been Patrick Bamford.

Strikers can be a little more fortunate in that they can go on a hot scoring streak and quickly get their name back in, whereas defenders can find it a bit more difficult to impress in a short space of time.

However the weeks are ticking by towards the World Cup and after last season was almost entirely wiped out for Bamford, you really need to be playing and scoring. The little set-back he encountered in the second week of the season at Southampton has stopped him from hitting the ground running this season and he has only really returned to anything like match fitness.

At Brentford, he did make a difference to our attack but there was a little rustiness, so with time so short, he's really up against it to get back into that squad, unfortunately.

I'll be doing a few international games myself this month, commentating on Germany against Hungary and then Hungary versus Italy in the Nations League.

I do enjoy switching away from the club stuff for a moment to see what's out there in terms of new talent, which is what happened with Willy Gnonto. It will be interesting to see if he manages to get another cap or two this time around, and it will be nice to try and spot another diamond or two.

If any of the international games get close to the excitement of the one I commentated on at the weekend, Juventus' 2-2 draw with Salernitana, I'll be absolutely thrilled.

It was a crazy game to watch, never mind trying to make sense of it in commentary.

Juventus are a team in a rebuilding period, they've lost important players and brought in some very good ones but nearly all of those are injured and that's putting pressure on Massimiliano Allegri.

They were up against a team who miraculously escaped relegation in the previous season and for all intents and purposes should have been soundly beaten, but it didn't end up that way.

Salernitana were 2-0 up and Juventus, as they previously have done, found something and did well to come back to level.

It looked as if they had won it 3-2 in time added on but suddenly the goal was chalked off, Arkadiusz Milik got himself sent off and all hell broke loose on the pitch.

Once again, though, we were left scratching our heads at officials and VAR and wondering what the heck was going on.

When I was commentating, I didn't see the image that showed why the Juventus goal should have stood, I only saw the close up, and you can only say what you see, but it's quite incredible that mistakes as bad as that one can still happen now that we're using technology.

I suppose as long as humans are involved too, mistakes will happen.

That one might even make Leeds fans think that some of the decisions we've encountered weren't as bad as we first thought.

For me, when we have to start delving into a clip, watching and rewatching, studying lines across a pitch in minute detail, then clear and obvious goes out the window.

You hope these things will even themselves out over a season and Juventus have had them going their way so often. Leeds are certainly due a few good ones between October and the end of the season.