The September international break is something of a second pre-season for Championship clubs; a valuable hiatus from the relentless fixture list for second-tier clubs, allowing managers to work on the fundamentals with players who have not been called up to represent their country.
Four games into the season, Leeds United have taken a healthy eight points courtesy of two wins and two draws. It is not perfect — only Sunderland can boast that — but it is enough to give them confidence as they head into the next batch of games. Crucially, they remain unbeaten in the league (it is best to banish memories of the 3-0 Carabao Cup loss to Middlesbrough in August) and in touching distance of the top two.
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Getting their first home win with a well-earned 2-0 victory over Hull City helped bring some good feeling into the break. Though there is a chance, as expressed by murmuring fans dissecting the game on the way out of Elland Road last weekend, that the break has come at the wrong time given the result and the desire to bed in new signings.
There has been a sizeable change to the squad compared to pre-season, so this period of training will be particularly beneficial to manager Daniel Farke. Leeds’ camp in Germany was the time for him to get his ideas across, a chance to lay the foundations and work with his “basement group”.
That phrase is a classic Farke-ism, used frequently in recent months to refer to his core, arguably less glamorous, group of players such as Ethan Ampadu, Junior Firpo or Pascal Struijk. Leeds’ star players were in pre-season too, but the subsequent sales of Crysencio Summerville and Georginio Rutter and the signing of replacements means the team has had little time to bed in ideas together on the training pitch.
Though even in this second period of getting to know players and imparting ideas, Leeds face more disruption than any other side in the division due to international call-ups. Twelve players, all in Leeds’ matchday squads this season, are away from Thorp Arch, leaving 12 senior players at Farke’s disposal. Burnley, Middlesbrough and West Brom are among those in the division with high levels of call-ups too, but still fewer than Leeds.
The Welsh national team, aka ‘Leeds United and friends’, will play twice in the break in the Nations League against Turkey and Montenegro (tonight). Ampadu, Joe Rodon, Charlie Crew, Karl Darlow and Dan James were all called up to Craig Bellamy’s squad, though the latter had to withdraw due to the hamstring injury which kept him sidelined against Hull. Crew, named on the bench for Leeds for the first three games of the season, earns another senior call-up after his first in May. Darlow’s inclusion was a surprise, with even his Leeds team-mates unaware of the goalkeeper’s Welsh roots until this summer.
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Also on their travels during the break are long-haul trips for Firpo (Dominican Republic) and Brenden Aaronson (USMNT). Ao Tanaka is away with Japan and fellow new signing Manor Solomon is with Israel, further limiting the time Farke has had with either player since they signed. Spurs loanee Solomon had just four days as a Leeds player before the break and Tanaka had just half of that.
Tanaka playing for Japan last week (Kenta Harada/Getty Images)
Among those left behind, however, are two of the late-window recruits in Largie Ramazani and Isaac Schmidt. After signing late on deadline day, Schmidt was ineligible to play for Leeds against Hull, and Farke had yet to speak to him in depth before speaking to the media for post-match duties. A phone call on deadline day was enough to convince the Swiss defender of the project at Leeds and this week is a chance to show his new manager his abilities.
Illan Meslier, Patrick Bamford and Joel Piroe are also part of the small group training at United this week. The fact Leeds do not have a big squad means those with far-flung travel commitments could be needed immediately after their return. Farke has spoken about his preference for a moderate squad size, although the 23 established players at his disposal leaves limited wiggle room for absences.
“If you have 36 players around it is not too good for the spirit and togetherness and you have too many players who are not needed,” Farke said when asked about squad sizes before the transfer deadline. “It’s always better when everyone is needed. But when you have an injury crisis or bad luck with something unexpected happens, it can be tricky sometimes. It’s not healthy for the group to have four or five competitors in one position when only one can play.”
Also on international duties for their senior teams are Max Wober, called up for Austria despite his limited game time at Leeds so far, and Ilia Gruev, for Bulgaria. Willy Gnonto and Mateo Joseph are both away with the Italy and Spain under-21s sides respectively for Euros qualifiers.
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Joseph and Gnonto, along with Aaronson, Firpo and Tanaka play their final game of the international break on Tuesday. This season presents a new challenge for Leeds in having a larger group returning from further afield. In the last international break in March, only Firpo was in action outside of Europe and top-performers Summerville and Rutter were not selected.
Releasing players for international duty always brings risk of injury and that was one reason that United kept Firpo and Joseph at the club instead of allowing them to play in the non-FIFA sanctioned Olympics tournament in Paris this summer. Regardless of the challenges of having internationals in the squad, Leeds have plenty of experience in managing load and recovery for players travelling long distances.
There is always a risk that international fixtures interrupt a run of good form for a club, or brings injuries, but having so many players away is a nice problem to have, and the break may do Farke some good.
(Top photo: Stephen Pond via Getty Images)
