Leeds

Leeds United – should they wheel out Barrow to Mo the opposition

Ingemar Johansson was a little heard of Swedish heavyweight who had been disqualified for passivity in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, his inaction meaning his silver medal was withheld and only awarded 30 years later.

He fought and won the heavyweight title in 1959, taking the belt from American Floyd Patterson  via a third round knockout. Swede Johansson spent the first two rounds flicking out a soft left jab, his right hand inactive for two rounds. In the third round he saw an opening and floored Patterson. That happened six times more in that round before the fight was stopped – Patterson having hit the floor seven times.

Now before some Twitterer starts harping on saying ‘it took X paragraphs to tell us Y’, my point here is that Johansson was an unknown quantity in America at the time – he was a 5-1 underdog entering the fight.

Now that brings my in a slightly circuitous way to the point I wish to make – should Leeds United look to Swansea loanee Modou Barrow to create a similar effect in the run-in to the end of the season? Could the Gambian speedster be the secret weapon that Leeds United might use to floor the opposition as they look towards the end of the season?

Winger Barrow arrived at Elland Road on transfer deadline day, January 31, as one of two natural widemen – Spaniard Alfonso Pedraza being the other incoming loanee. Whilst Pedraza has gone on to pick up some game time (346 minutes – four starts) and a first Leeds United goal, Barrow’s pickings have been pretty slim.

The Gambian has only managed 84 minutes from four substitute appearances, last featuring against Fulham in a 30 minute appearance on March 7. However, the flying Gambian has also made 18 appearances in this season’s Premier League, setting up goals against Leicester City and Arsenal.

He’s also deemed good enough to turn out for the Gambian national squad, last playing today against the Central African Republic, against whom he scored his first international goal(s) – below.

https://twitter.com/pontusjansson18/status/846415069785346049

However, despite the above tweet giving all the glory to Mo Barrow, there are others who point out that he only scored the one goal, but weighed in with an assist for fellow Sky Bet Championship player, and ex-Leeds United loanee, Mustapha Carayol – Yanbian Funde FC’s Bubacarr Trawally confirming this.

This single, duck-breaker goal was confirmed by Barrow himself on his personal Twitter feed after the game itself.

Wheeling out a Barrow – should it be done

With a serious enough stock to have warranted 18 Premier League appearances under his belt this season, in addition to 22 last season, and with ten goal/8 assist season in Sweden’s second tier in 2014, you’d have thought that more game time would be warranted at Leeds United.

Maybe Garry Monk hasn’t been seeing enough from the Banjul-born 24-year-old to warrant a more regular outing for United, that scenario more than likely the case. Or maybe, like Ingemar Johansson’s famed right hand, he is being kept back in reserve as a surprise package to be unleashed on Leeds’ next eight opponents as the season draws to a close.

There’s little doubt that Modou Barrow has qualities that he could bring to bear in a positive manner in a Leeds United side that has earned their current fourth spot in the table. His pace and direct running alone would scare defenders rigid at times, and no defender likes to defend on the back foot. seeing how well Alfonso Pedraza has fitted in to the Leeds side has left some fans wondering whether it might be worth dropping Hadi Sacko to the bench and replacing him like-for-like with Barrow.

Sacko has been hit-and-miss this season for Leeds United, more ‘miss’ really, but he does guarantee United a couple of things. He gets them up the pitch quickly and drives the ball to the byeline. Sacko’s final wall is often wayward, the right-wing getting in positions and then wasting the worked opportunity. Playing Barrow, with his experience of operating at a higher level could be one of those advantages Leeds United might choose to operate come Saturday onwards.

 

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