Leeds United: Title test against Burnley
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00:00Well, moving on to speak of favorites, of course, we have an international break to
00:05come but then we've got the small matter of an early title game, I suppose you could say
00:13I know, started the league, perhaps in the way they would have wanted. But Burnley along
00:20with Leeds are promotion favorites. Burnley perhaps whilst having started well have faltered
00:27Leeds having faltered at the start have now got going a little bit. So yeah, it's actually
00:32quite an interesting game coming into it. And you wonder, does the international break
00:36maybe stop the momentum of both sides? Well, more so Leeds at least. But yeah, coming into
00:41it, it's an interesting one. I'm not really sure how to read it. I mean, obviously, I
00:46know I've just said there that Leeds are perhaps more of the form team at the moment, even
00:50though two weeks ago, you probably would have thought the other way around. It's a big game
00:54already, isn't it? It is definitely. Yeah. And if I tell you this, I mean, obviously
00:58we're speaking quite early ahead of the game here. But if I tell you that Leeds have been
01:02chalked up as four to six favorites, you might be surprised at that by how short they are
01:07on the batting for that one. I mean, because myself looking at it when I saw that, I thought
01:12blimey, they really are fancied for this one. But I can sort of see why. But equally, you
01:17know, this will be... I don't think there's anything wrong whatsoever with saying it's
01:22an early sort of like, you know, title clash, top of the table clash, whatever you want
01:26to call it, 6.0. Why not? I mean, that's what football's all about, you know, to get excited
01:30and build games up. And why not? And they are both up there towards the upper reach
01:33of the table already. You're right. They haven't had the ideal, perfect starts to want it.
01:37But nevertheless, they're both up there very much in the mix. And look, I think it would
01:41be an absolutely massive, massive surprise if Leeds and Burnley weren't both very much
01:45in the race for automatic promotion come the end of the season. I mean, if not the actual
01:50top two come the end of the season, I mean, that's probably the way most people would
01:54see it. And, you know, it's not the acid test, but it will be like a massive sort of barometer
02:00of where both sides are at, you know, early on in the season. I mean, I think you've summarised
02:06it pretty well, really, that Burnley sort of started off a million miles an hour and
02:09have stuttered a bit, whereas Leeds have probably gone the other way. So it feels like they've
02:12probably got the momentum. There's probably two main things to this. Number one is the
02:15international break, which you took dead right to hit on. Both clubs obviously have got internationals.
02:20I mean, from a Leeds point of view, they've got a stack of them, you know, they've got
02:23like, I mean, it's almost the whole first team just about, and we're not going for every
02:28single one of them, but most of them are on international duty. And we've seen what international
02:32breaks have done with Leeds before in terms of coming back with injuries and, you know,
02:35and messing up momentum and stuff. So that's the first thing to keep an eye on, basically
02:39how the players come back and what shape they come back and whatever. So that'll obviously
02:44need to be considered. The other thing is injuries. Leeds, obviously, as we speak, aren't
02:47too bad at the moment. Obviously, Bamford and Dan James. I think Burnley, when you go,
02:50I think they've got 10 at the moment. So, I mean, they've got a massive squad, you know,
02:54so they can probably deal with it. But equally, I mean, 10 injuries is 10 injuries. So I mean,
02:57that's definitely going to sort of like, that's definitely going to start them a little bit.
03:00So they're two things to look at, really. You'll have old faces, obviously, Connor Roberts
03:05at Burnley, Jadon Anthony's there now as well. So that'll be interesting. Lyle Foster's a
03:08very good player for them. He'll need watching out for. Josh Brown will start the season
03:13well. Scott Parker, obviously, they've got a manager who's very ambitious and wants to
03:16be going places and stuff. He took a lot of time out of the game to come back there
03:19and make no mistake about it. He'll want to be going in there and finishing the top two.
03:23It's as simple as that. And, you know, it's a difficult game. But I mean, you know, Leeds
03:28are at home. I mean, obviously, if you could play the game straight away after the bats
03:32about wins are bad, then you'd be taking real fresh momentum into it. You just hope the
03:36international break doesn't stall it that much. But yeah, you know, it's a massive game.
03:41There's no doubt about that. The other thing with it is as well, because it's Saturday
03:44lunchtime, it actually gives Leeds a chance to go into the top two. Again, it's very,
03:47very early on. But that is the bottom line. When they'll go second, certainly ahead of
03:52Watford and West Brom play and put a bit of pressure on them. And it does very, very quickly
03:57take shape, though. I mean, you know, it feels like a matter of minutes ago, we were talking
04:01about the start of the season. This will straight away be five games in. Then, you know, a couple
04:05more games and they go to Sunderland. It does start taking shape very, very quickly. And
04:09yeah, it's early to say a six-pointer. But I mean, Leeds are already one point ahead
04:13of Burnley. And if they were to beat them, that's four straight away, you know, a four-point
04:16gap at an early stage of the season. And I don't think there's any way you can look at
04:20this Burnley team and think they're not going to be in the mix. So if you can get yourself
04:23four points clear of them early on in the season, then great. You know, and that'll
04:26obviously be the aim. And they're seen as favourites and the pressure will be on Leeds.
04:30Every single game this season, they'll be favourites. I think the only game looking
04:34at that that they won't be favourites in is maybe Burnley away. But to be honest, given
04:38the prices of this one, I mean, a lot will depend on then. They'll probably be favourites
04:42even for that if all continues to go well. So, you know, the pressure's on, but they've
04:45got the squad to do it. As I say, fingers crossed over international breaks and injuries
04:49and should be a good game. But yeah, I mean, you'd have to fancy Leeds to do it, I think.
04:54I think you're right, Lee. Yes. Well, I think you've summarised that quite well going into the
04:58international break. As I say, a little while now until we next talk about Leeds and then we
05:04next watch Leeds play. But yeah, I don't know whether this break is perhaps a bad time or not.
05:13Well, certainly I don't think a good time, given the fact that they are two wins of the bounce.
05:17It's got to hope that Daniel Farker uses it constructively and creatively to make sure that
05:22they are fit and ready for that game against Burnley. But until then, we'll be back. Lee,
05:28you're off on holiday, so enjoy that. I will be. I'll be watching the Burnley game
05:34in the old-school style of hopefully with a pint in hand, cheering them on and stuff. So,
05:38yeah, we shall see how they go. But it'll be a good game. Then we'll be back for that one
05:42and after that we shall see how we go. Indeed, we will. But until then,
05:45thank you all very much for listening and for watching. We will see you next time.