, Leeds United: 5 things we learned from Pep Clotet’s Marca article

Leeds United: 5 things we learned from Pep Clotet’s Marca article

After two seasons where the fans were subjected to a succession of scraped results and mid-table mediocrity, with sides coached by largely sub-standard coaching set-ups, you can be excused for allowing Leeds fans to feel a little smug at the moment.

The side sit in fifth place in the Sky Bet Championship table, they have a 20-goal leading scorer and for the first time since Massimo Cellino has been involved with the club it looks like a manager/head coach will last out a full season.

To say that two seasons ago, when Diamond Dave Hockaday was installed would likely have seen you driven out of town on the business end of a pitchfork and dismissed as a heretic. Thankfully where there once was short-termism and mayhem there seems to be planning and a sense of calm serenity. It really is surreal to be a Leeds United fan at the moment.

Such is the cachet of the club, helped of course by its Spanish triangulo of Pep Clotet, Pablo Hernández and Alfonso Pedraza, that on Spanish online publication Marca there was an article published about Leeds and the direction in which the club is heading.

In the article in Marca’s ‘Fútbol Internacional’ section, Leeds United are said to be “the giant that is awaking,” and here are five things that we find out from the article itself.

Five things learned from the Marca article

1. That there was disagreements between the fans and the managerial staff

“When we arrived, we found that the fans were estranged. On the one hand, the club had a troubled history regarding coaches. But, on the other hand, it is one of the biggest teams in England.”

2. Monk and Clotet did feel the heat of a bad start to the season

“August was a dire month but from there, the team was building confidence and we managed to overcome that ‘if we lose, we know what’s going to happen’ [mentality].”

3. Pablo Hernández was specifically targeted and head-hunted by Monk and Clotet

“As we wanted the team to have a maximum distribution capacity, we knew we had to bring players with personality that could work with each other. Footballers with quality there are many, but it was more important to know who came to would understand this message.”

4. The management know the team and its limitations…and strengths.

“In the competition, we are not a team that stands out for its good football or for its good defense of the long balls, as the English are. But we are very competitive. If you play well, we play well. If you play to win a dead ball, we win a dead ball. If you play defensively, we defend well. It is very difficult to play against us.”

5. Alfonso Pedraza was on the Leeds United radar in pre-season

“When we were at Swansea, as we did not have resources there like other Premier League teams, we had to develop a good strategy to control the market. Spain, France, Germany and the Netherlands. There [in those countries] we highlighted a few figures. Each time we looked for younger players. And when we came to Leeds we recompiled all the data. What we already had pointed to Pedraza. He played in the Under-19 and we were analyzing matches. We wanted a wide player of quality on loan. In summer, we mentioned it, but we brought in Hadi Sacko.”

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