Mighty Leeds Weblog

FROM THE WILDERNESS Written by: Rob Conlon The olés started ringing around Elland Road two minutes into first-half stoppage time. In the East Upper, an old bloke on the row in front of me had already been cheering each Leeds pass on his own since the fourth official signalled Huddersfield’s torment was going to last another five minutes. Leeds were 3-0 up, but the old fella sensed United weren’t done yet. The olés stopped when Sam Byram backheeled the ball to send Georginio Rutter past Tom Edwards once more. Byram had tried the same trick when the game was still goalless, only to be harshly penalised for a foul. This time, the game continued, allowing Georginio to find Crysencio Summerville in the penalty area, who completed Leeds’ scoring with a half to spare. “The fourth goal felt like 500 passes,” Daniel Farke said afterwards. “We were so calm to exhaust them with our possession and then to find the right moment to speed up the game, with a perfect give and go with Rutter an...

EASY, EASY Written by: Moxcowhite • Daniel Chapman It’s not hard to imagine an alternate reality in which Tom Edwards, Huddersfield Town’s chosen right-back at Elland Road on Saturday, plays for Leeds United. He promised enough in the Premier League for Stoke City to give him a long contract, and they still own him now. But they haven’t picked him for a game this decade. Instead, his best form has been in MLS during two seasons on loan at Red Bull’s New York branch. Now approaching his 25th birthday, Edwards’ career trajectory is of the kind – good initial top flight performances, two good years playing RB-ball – that used to attract attention from a certain director of football who until recently was compiling his databases in Beeston. If things had turned out differently, Edwards could be playing on loan for Roma right now. Instead he’s on loan with Huddersfield, and that wasn’t his last bad decision of 2023. Just before ten minutes were up at Elland Road on Saturday, Edwards f...

Leeds United's 45-minute battering of Huddersfield Town did the job and made for a relatively flat second half but a crucial three points. By Graham Smyth It was important for Leeds to bounce back from a disappointing midweek defeat and this represented a banana skin of a game but they took total control in the first half, scoring four goals to put the result beyond doubt. Daniel Farke's front line were too hot for Huddersfield to handle and though the second half was underwhelming by comparison, few could complain having had their money's worth and some before the break. Here's the YEP take. Good day Crysencio Summerville That 'Premier League athlete' tag bestowed on him by Gary Rowett looked perfectly apt in this game. He was too quick for his markers, too good on the ball and too clinical. Could have had a hat-trick to go with his two assists. Deserved his ovation. Once again proved himself vital. Daniel James How's that for end product? Tha...

On a day when Daniel Farke claimed Leeds United sailed close to perfection at times, it was hard to judge how much their 4-1 win over Huddersfield Town was down to their brilliance or the visitors' ineptitude but it is crystal clear clubs less than 16 miles apart are light years away in footballing terms. By Stuart Rayner Play like they did on Saturday, and neither will be in next season's Championship. Because Leeds were brilliant. For someone whose mother tongue is German, Farke has a fantastic turn of phrase and his description of "electrifying offensive fireworks" was as prescient as it was topical. The Whites can win in different ways but none as exhilarating as when Crysencio Summerville and Dan James are in full counter-attacking flow. Both scored twice and the former made James' goals too. Had Leeds wanted to score more, they would have. At the end of a three-game week it was more sensible to conserve energy and substitute those playing best, not...

If your plate was half full then you'll remember the Yorkshire derby for Leeds United's first half brilliance and if your plate was still half empty then it'll probably never be full. By Graham Smyth Daniel Farke recently revealed he would celebrate a good win with a slice of cake on the sofa and for 45 minutes against Huddersfield Town his men produced the footballing equivalent of having the finest baked delicacy, eating it and leaving no crumbs. A belly-full of first half goals sated every Elland Road appetite so perhaps it was no huge surprise that the second half was like a post-feed nap on the sofa. Even if Farke wanted his men to be greedier and add to their 4-0 lead, he also wanted them to manage the game and finishing up 4-1 did little to dampen the enthusiasm of his full-time praise. Conceding a second half goal and failing to reproduce the scintillating football of the first 45 minutes meant it was not quite a perfect afternoon but this is the Championshi...

Daniel Farke's tongue was firmly in cheek when he spoke about £150m sums, Real Madrid and Georginio Rutter after another joyful display but the manager is in no doubt as to his striker's potential. By Graham Smyth Rutter has this season presented an altogether different picture of himself from the youngster who arrived amid Premier League relegation stress and was handed little more than a cameo role. The Frenchman's struggles, following a £35m move from Hoffenheim, and noises about his emotional reluctance to leave his former team-mates behind, led to a feeling that he could well depart in the summer. But when the transfer exodus came Rutter was not among those rushing for the exits, opting instead to stay and try to put things right. As far as incoming owners 49ers Enterprises were concerned during the summer there was no salvage job to be done because in their eyes Rutter was a young player with just a handful of months of Elland Road life under his belt. And Farke w...

Leeds United boss Daniel Farke saw something close to perfection in his side’s ‘electrifying offensive fireworks’ en route to a 4-1 derby win over Huddersfield Town. By Graham Smyth Farke’s men roared into a 4-0 lead in a scintillating first half, the gulf in class between the hosts and their visitors made abundantly clear as Daniel James and Crysencio Summerville scored twice each. Georginio Rutter was involved in so much of the Whites’ best work and the back four were rarely troubled – Joe Rodon providing one vital intervention to halt Huddersfield’s most promising chance. The second half was a more underwhelming affair with the game won and Huddersfield sitting deep to try and stem the tide, but the Terriers did at least spoil the clean sheet with Michał Helik’s goal. Farke stopped short of describing the first half performance as perfection but admitted it was not far off: “First of all I think you could see how much it meant to our players to win the local derby and show a...

An outstanding counter-attacking performance from Leeds United wrote off their midweek defeat as nothing more than the blip the Championship often throws up, but only magnified the pasting Huddersfield Town took. By Stuart Rayner This was another, far worse than the 4-1 scoreline made it look. Darren Moore's job as Terriers manager is already looking in grave danger, and he is only seven games into it. Even for the man who masterminded one of football's great comebacks, eight goals in a week was a lot to come back from before he has been able to get any real terrace credit in the bank. And in effect, they came from just 105 minutes, because like Cardiff City on Tuesday, Leeds declared very early in the non-contest, taking pity on their battered foe. Shunting Neil Warnock aside in September was always going to be a hard sell and on this evidence it has spectacularly backfired. Leeds will do this and worse to other, better, teams than Huddersfield but the level of una...

Leeds United produced a first-half procession en route to a 4-1 blitz of Saturday's Championship visitors Huddersfield Town in a lunchtime Yorkshire derby at Elland Road. By Lee Sobot The mesmerising Crysencio Summerville and Dan James both bagged first-half braces to put Daniel Farke's side 4-0 up in a first half in which Georginio Rutter once again dazzled. Huddersfield eventually pulled a goal back midway through the second half through Michal Helik who cashed in after Illan Meslier had spilled a shot but Leeds were already home and dry in front of a season-high crowd of 36,813 inside Elland Road. Leeds began brightly but loose control let Dan James down in the sixth minute after being picked out by a neat crossfield pass into the area from Crysencio Summerville. But Huddersfield threatened just three minutes later after a break through the middle ended with the twisting and turning Delano Burgzorg firing just wide from the edge of the box. Leeds then had the bal...

Leeds United’s new chief operating officer Morrie Eisenberg arrives at Elland Road having held influential business positions with San Francisco 49ers, car manufacturer Tesla and various other US-based firms. By Joe Donnohue Eisenberg graduated from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania magna cum laude before embarking on a Masters of Business Administration at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a student, first entering the corporate world with Chicago-based firm Bain and Company. Shortly thereafter, Eisenberg joined Digital Motorworks before moving on to Microsoft where he held the position of business development manager. At the tech giant, Leeds’ new chief operating officer ‘developed global alliances with telecom companies, device manufacturers and content providers’, according to his actively-updated LinkedIn account. Eisenberg later led operations as chief executive at Silicon Valley-based instant messaging platform Spleak before movi...

Every word Leeds United manager Daniel Farke said on injuries, fan encounters, Stoke City, Huddersfield Town and Patrick Bamford’s penalty miss in midweek. By Joe Donnohue Daniel, we always ask you about the team news but I think Crysencio Summerville’s problem with the shoulder was of interest to us the other day. How have you had to manage this and is he okay for tomorrow? DF: No, it's not a big problem, he has [been] struggling with this since a few weeks, shoulder injuries before each and every training session, each and every game, has to strap it, it's improving like normal a shoulder injury, it always lasts a while until you don't feel the pain anymore, but he's ready for the training sessions, also ready for the game so not a big problem. It was also not the only reason why he was not in the starting line-up in the last game, I’ve spoke before he missed big parts of pre-season also, we have to keep in mind that especially in the recent season, he was not...

Daniel Farke says he has no concerns about Crysencio Summerville's fitness, but that they will have to continue managing it. By Stuart Rayner The forward has been one of the stars of Leeds' return to the Championship, but it is difficult for any explosive attacking player to be on the field for all the minutes of a 46-game season and he was on the bench for Wednesday's 1-0 defeat at Stoke City. The 21-year-old has been managing a heavily-strapped shoulder this term. "It's not a big problem," said Farke. "He's been struggling with this a few weeks. Before every training session he has to strap it. "He doesn’t feel the pain. It was not the only reason he's not in the starting line-up, he's missed big parts of pre-season and last season he wasn't a regular starter, this season he's had one muscle injury. "He was struggling with his shoulder in the last game. "At the moment he's in outstanding form. ...

By Pranav Shahaney Leeds United have secured the services of former Tesla director Morrie Eisenberg, according to a statement released by the club. The Whites announced on their official website on 26 October, that he will be moving to Leeds with his entire family to join the club on a full-time basis. He will be the club’s chief operating officer and has also worked with the San Francisco 49ers. 49ers are stamping their authority and now shaping the club in their image as they aim to return to the Premier League this season. Currently, the top two are quite a bit ahead but the Championship is unpredictable and Leeds cannot rule out a top-two finish. Eisenberg comes to Elland Road with an impressive CV and fans certainly have reason to be excited about this arrival. He’s even worked at Microsoft in the early 200s and has years of experience working for the 49ers as their VP for Business Operations. The fact that his entire family is moving with him means that he’s going t...

OFF PENS Written by: Moxcowhite • Daniel Chapman We know from experience that the EFL Championship can be a land of contrasts but this was ridiculous. United’s trip to Stoke ended with a sorrowful inversion of Saturday’s jaunt to Norwich. Instead of Crysencio Summerville galloping over halfway to win the game with a late counter attack, stoppage time in Stoke had Summerville hacking a striped shirt down to stop them carbon copying. On Saturday Summerville cramped up from over-celebrating. On Wednesday he stayed face down hurt from dealing out the clattering, and instead of Liam Cooper there ready to massage him, it was the referee with his notebook to book him. Leeds played as if haunted by the weekend’s joyful performance. Pushed back by Stoke’s pressing and short of new thoughts, Leeds kept pinging the ball towards Georginio Rutter, as if hoping to get him turning and recreating Summerville’s winner himself. But the passes were too early, too frenetic, and found him too far fro...

It was never going to take very long for someone to use a standout performance by one of Leeds United’s attacking stars to start a January conversation. By Graham Smyth No sooner had Crysencio Summerville put Norwich City to the sword than fingers put to flight a Tweet suggesting Premier League clubs were giving him the once over with the mid-season transfer window in mind. On one hand it would of course be no surprise, because as he has proved at Carrow Road and elsewhere, Summerville has a talent that belongs outwith the Championship. But given that he and his people were so content to remain at Leeds this season instead of pushing for a summer move, and given the length of his contract, and given 49ers Enterprise' ambition to secure promotion at the first time of asking, a January exit would be as stunning as it would be self-defeating, at least for the club. The question for any player in this Whites squad with designs on a top flight career is whether that would be best ...