The #LUFC Breakfast Debate (Thursday 27th April) No fitness issues for Gnonto, so why isn't Gracia utilising him
Good Morning. It's Thursday 27th April, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road...
No fitness issues for Gnonto, so why isn't Gracia utilising him
An unnamed source, close to Leeds Utd, have revealed that Wilfred Gnonto's recent lack of game time has nothing to do with fitness issues. It was thought that the Italian International may have picked up an injury, which would explain Gracia's decision to use him sparingly over the last six games, but nothing could be further from the truth. Social media outlet 'LUFCFANZONE' revealed that they were told...
Before the Liverpool game Willy sustained a small injury. He was 80% fit for the Liverpool game but has been 100% and available full strength for every game after
Gnonto has bought more creativity to the side than most of the squad combined, it's like he has been the life-support of the club this season, and to suddenly drop him makes absolutely no sense. Gracia can't even argue that he is a luxury player. Gnonto works hard off the ball, isn't afraid to challenge, and certainly doesn't give the ball away cheaply. Elland Road journalist Phil Hay describes the 19 year old as explosive, dynamic and apparently nerveless, begging the question, what sort of situation calls for those traits if not the one Leeds are in?
That's where we were with Javi Gracia and Willy Gnonto on Tuesday night, locked in a discussion about why Gnonto wasn’t playing against Leicester City when Leeds were in the firing line for relegation, using up lives they didn’t have. A little like Gelhardt, isn’t Gnonto a gift horse? Does anyone really want to die wondering?
It was not as if Gnonto is being kept out of the team by rampant creativity out wide or deadly finishing through the middle. The 1-1 draw with Leicester ended with Patrick Bamford shooting wide from almost under the crossbar, head in hands afterwards, like just about every Leeds fan in the stands.
The 19-year-old is explosive, dynamic and apparently nerveless — and what sort of situation calls for those traits if not the one Leeds are in? It might not be a silver bullet, because relegation battles rarely offer those, but Gnonto is a card worth playing, and a very obvious one at that.
Do Leeds need to clear the decks, and start again
The stats from Tuesday night make grim reading for Leeds Utd going forward. 41% possession, 64% passing accuracy and 23% shot accuracy; this against a club without a clean sheet in 17 appearances and one point from their previous ten games before beating Wolves last weekend! Some are worse than others. The passing accuracy of Firpo (51%) and Cooper (54%) defies logic, but in truth none of the players are stepping forward to the plate, making our quest for survival that much harder. Something is not right at the club. The only real fight on Tuesday night came from Rodrigo! Did Leeds make a grave mistake by bringing Gracia to the club?
Bookies slash odds on Leeds returning to Championship
For the first time his season, leading Bookmakers Bet365 are offering odds less than evens on West Yorkshire's finest returning to the Championship. Although Southampton 1/10, Nottingham Forest 8/13 and Everton 8/11 remain favourites for the drop, a run of bad form have prompted the betting company to slash their odds from 4/1 to 5/6 for Leeds to go down.