Barry Douglas arrived at Elland Road with much expectation heaped on his shoulders. It is fair to say that he didn’t reach the pinnacle that was expected of him. He is currently on loan at Blackburn Rovers and, in speaking to the Lancashire Telegraph, says that his Leeds United experience will stand him in very good stead as he looks to adapt to Tony Mowbray’s way of playing football.
After starting out at Livingstone and moving from Queens Park to Dundee United, Douglas’ route into English football was somewhat circuitous. Not following the more traditional ‘south-of-the-border route’, Douglas first went to Poland with Lech Poznan then Turkey with Konyaspor before landing at Wolves in 2017.
Douglas arrived at Elland Road ahead of last season, a £3million buy from promoted Wolverhampton Wanderers in a deal that Leeds fans saw as something of a bargain buy. He was coming off of a highly-productive season at Molineux where he scored five goals and laid on a staggering 16 assists.
With fans salivating to the point of almost uncontrollable drooling, there was a hope that this Wolves form would translate into similar output at Elland Road under the fluid attacking play of Marcelo Bielsa. Sadly, that Black Country form just didn’t happen for the affable Scot. He fell behind Stuart Dallas and Leif Davis in the left-back pecking order at Elland Road – hence his move to Ewood Park.
However, Douglas is not bitter and actually points out that his experiences and the rigour of being at Elland Road will be a huge benefit to him and Blackburn Rovers as he looks to make himself a fixture at the Lancashire club. Commenting more specifically on this, the on-loan left-back singles out the fitness demands that Marcelo Bielsa places on all Whites players.
Commenting more specifically, Douglas explains:
“Physically I feel fine, I don’t think there’s any unfit players under Marcelo Bielsa. For me it’s about getting that match sharpness, getting the eye back in and an understanding with the players here, and that comes with games and training.“
Since arriving at Ewood Park, Douglas has gone on to give a good impression of himself. He featured for the whole 90 minutes of Rovers 10-9 penalty loss to Hull City in the Carabao Cup and made his League debut on Saturday, playing for an hour in the 4-0 Championship victory over Coventry City.
From this start, he will be looking to move forward with Tony Mowbray’s side and help to move them up the table. Free-scoring Blackburn face a difficult game tonight against high-flying Reading who have conceded just once this season. Barry Douglas might have his hands full if selected tonight.
