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Leeds United’s Antenucci speaks on return to first team

‘Fear the Beard’ was the rallying cry when Mirco Antenucci became a crowd favourite last season in leading Leeds United’s scoring with 10 goals.Mirco has struggled for first team game time but has returned in Steve Evans’ revamped line-up. Here he talks about what it means to him to be back in the side.

The love-in with the bearded one continued with his well-taken penalty in the 1-1 draw against Bolton at the Macron Stadium on Saturday, a goal that gave the Italian his fourth of the campaign. In an article on the Leeds United website, the hirsute Italian said that both he and his teammates left Bolton “feeling optimistic” that better fortune was due to befall Leeds United soon.

Speaking of the carry over from the Fulham game to the Bolton match, plus the impetus that it gives the team as they look to motor on forward, Antenucci says that,

“I’m happy because the team played well. We have come away feeling optimistic because it was a tough match. We created a lot of chances but it’s just one point. We played very well away at Fulham and also on Saturday. I think we have to keep going that way. We hit the post with Tom Adeyemi – we had a lot of chances. With the extra man we tried to create more chances.”

Mirco also spoke about the return to the starting eleven and what it means to be playing as part of a 4-4-2 line-up stating,

“Playing every match helps me stay fit, it’s different to playing 15 minutes or 20 minutes,” he explained. A lot of the teams in the Championship play 4-4-2 and it’s a balanced system. You can be more dangerous with two strikers.”

Antenucci was also quick to praise the effect that boss Steve Evans has had since taking over the head coach stewardship from Uwe Rosler who was sacked by Leeds last week on a typical LUFC Manic Monday at the club. The recalled Italian stated that,

“He’s had no time to work because he had two matches straightaway. Now we have the time to work and we have to see the improvements in the next match. But I think we have improved in the last two matches because we created a lot of chances. Before, we had problems in some matches.”

The final point that Mirco Antenucci made was about the importance of turning around fortunes at Elland Road, where the Whites haven’t won for the last seven months. Antenucci stressed the need to improve on this because,

“It’s important to win both at home and away, but at home is very important because we have so many fans at Elland Road. They give us the power to win the match.”

With Leeds seemingly pushing the 4-4-2 system under Steve Evans, Mirco Antenucci as an attacking foil could very well come to the fore more as the season continues.

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