Leeds United dressing room insider on falling apart theory, early kick-offs and individual mistakes — YEP 2/4/25

By Graham Smyth

If you listen to the chants of Leeds United’s gleeful rivals or even the most pessimistic of souls in the Whites fanbase, they are ‘falling apart’ again but a man inside the Elland Road dressing room sees different.

This week Ilia Gruev sat down for an interview with the YEP with Leeds United’s season finely poised. Having led the Championship for so long they find themselves in a chasing role now, albeit just two points back from new leaders Sheffield United. In part one of our chat with Gruev he addresses a couple of theories about this Whites team and gives a response from within the dressing room.

Firstly, Gruev has rubbished the notion that early kick-offs could be a factor in Leeds United's promotion bid.

This season the Whites have struggled to get the performances and results they need from a number of games that kicked off at 12 noon or 12.30pm. From the madcap opening day draw with Portsmouth to the recent 1-0 defeat at the hands of the same opposition, the campaign has been dotted with sporadic lunchtime disappointment. Manager Daniel Farke took a step in the direction of admitting there was a problem with a recent revelation that he had sought to make some matchday routine alterations for early kick-offs, to focus minds and activate bodies a little sooner.

If there is some issue that this team has with early kick-offs, then the promotion run-in looks less than ideal. Saturday's trip to Luton Town kicks off at 12.30pm, along with the Elland Road visit of Preston North End and the final game at Plymouth Argyle. On Thursday Leeds fans will learn if their game against Bristol City will be chosen for broadcast and chances are the kick-off time will be moved.

But midfielder Gruev insists the kick-off time should not be a consideration for a team that plays football every morning. "I think it shouldn't matter for us, we're professionals," he told the YEP. "We train every day at 11 in the morning and you have to perform, it doesn't matter if it's at 9am, 12pm, 3pm or 6pm, we have to perform. And the other team plays at 12.30pm, so we have to concentrate. For me personally it doesn't matter which time I play."

Midfield combinations

It doesn't matter to Gruev who he plays with, either. Now that Ethan Ampadu has returned to fitness following his second serious knee injury of the season, Farke has four central midfield options to choose from. Two, Gruev and Ampadu, are more defensive-minded and started the campaign as the first-choice pairing. Farke's preferred natural order was disrupted however by the impressive performances of Ao Tanaka and Joe Rothwell when they were parachuted into the starting XI following injuries to Gruev and Ampadu. In recent weeks Farke has chopped and changed, picking a pair he felt was best suited to individual occasions but Ampadu's status as his captain and 'most important player' suggests the Welsh international will get the nod if he's available. That leaves one spot for three men to fight for and each have their specialities. Rothwell likes to get on the ball and run at teams and possesses a wicked set-piece delivery. Gruev tends to keep things simple, covers a huge distance and gets stuck into the dirty side of the job, while Tanaka is more of a smooth operator on the ball and has posed by far the greatest goal threat of the quartet.

Gruev believes they all have a strong case to start and obviously wants to be in the starting XI as often as possible but isn't willing to declare a preferred partner.

"I like to play with everybody," he said. "It depends on where you play because now we have four players for two positions and everyone deserves to play, that's what I think, but only two players can play. This is a decision for the boss to make at the end of the day, who he feels at this stage will help the team the most. It's good to have such an amount of quality, because you need to do your best in training every day and there's a lot of competition. I think everyone can help the team but in the end the boss has to decide. I would never say I like to play with this player the most."

Farke's team selection has come under scrutiny numerous times this season, even in the midst of a stellar unbeaten run, but this week the spotlight will be brighter than ever. Willy Gnonto's goal against Swansea fuelled calls for him to replace Brenden Aaronson, while Illan Meslier's latest mistake has reignited the debate over his position. It would be pointless and unfair to ask a Leeds player to pass judgement on a team-mate but in his chat with the YEP Gruev did talk around the elephant in the dressing room.

"When you make an individual mistake everyone knows it, you don't even need to speak about it because you know there was a mistake," he said. "It can happen to everyone. Every player in our squad has made a mistake in their career. It's not easy. You have to support your team-mates, we have one goal, one big goal. You try to help them, you feel bad for them because we're a group and we're united. It's tough but it's also part of the business."

Moving on quickly

The Swansea game ended with what Farke called 'heartbreak' as Leeds twice let slip the lead and gave up a desperately poor 96th minute goal to draw 2-2. They handed Sheffield United the advantage, lost top spot and now sit level on points with third-placed Burnley. The task for Gruev and his team-mates in the early part of this week was to clear Saturday from their minds and move on, quickly,

"Of course it wasn't nice," he said. "It was a bad feeling, it always is when you concede in the last minute of a game which you should normally win. It's tough. It's tough. We all work very hard to have success, to achieve our goals, and of course, then after the game, directly after the game, it's tough mentally for everybody. You're disappointed. It's not easy. And you take this home. I can speak about me, I take this home for a couple of hours maybe or maybe one or two days because it's tough. When you have a big goal and when it doesn't go the way you want it to go on a Saturday it's tough but it's part of the business. [But] nothing really, really bad has happened, seven more games to play, we have to forget about it and the next opportunity comes on Saturday.”

Gruev's coping mechanisms include time spent with loved ones or doing sport to sweat out the disappointment. His motivations to help Leeds bounce back include the delight everyone else in the country takes in Leeds' most difficult moments. But just like the song, Leeds must also drown out the narrative that they are falling apart.

"I like it, it's a motivation for me," he said. When people want to see you down or if you have to fight against adversity, I like it. It's not important for us, we have to concentrate on ourselves. What people are saying or not saying, we can't influence it. People can sing whatever they want, it doesn't have to impact you as a player. Sometimes it is tough and you get the atmosphere, hear some things but you have to extract yourself from these things because it doesn't help you. When you have a great run and everyone says you're the best, you have to remind yourself this is a period but other times will come. You have to stay humble and work hard, there are times when everything is great and times when it's a struggle but this is normal. Everywhere is like this."

For the second season running Leeds have a March international break in their rearview mirror and are staring straight at questions over their mentality and their ability to finish the job. When Gruev looks around the dressing room he says he sees what he needs to in order to believe this time will be different to last.

"I see a lot of players who know what they want," he said. "I see a lot of players with a lot of quality. And the most important thing is we have a nice group, we are very united and support each other. This is really important. I have a really good feeling, I know what my team-mates and I are capable of. We want to show this and try to have better results now. We know we didn't get the points we wanted from the last four games but we want to change the momentum quickly on Saturday and I have absolute belief in my team."