2nd August, 2025
Well, that’s another pre-season friendly done and dusted but I for one am still struggling to assess exactly what sort of shape we are in. I think we can say that we looked to have progressed significantly since that opening game in Stockholm – inevitably I’d say, now that the new boys have had time with their new team mates, not that we were outshone even in that game. But I’m not sure how strong that Villarreal team was – they had a few of their biggest names in the squad but I’ll be interested to see how they line up in the coming week at Arsenal and then next weekend against Aston Villa; my guess is those games will see more of their likely La Liga starters than we saw today.
For now we can only really try to assess how our players ‘looked’ and there were certain stand out performers I thought. Perhaps most surprising to many will be the performance of Brenden Aaronson who capped a fine game with the most telling cross of the game, a cross that led to our equalising goal. We know Aaronson can run all day, but we also know he can be a bit lightweight at times. Today though he was perhaps the one player who looked to be on top of his game while many others looked to still be (hopefully) building their form.
Joel Piroe has been superb all pre-season and again today he was alert to grab that goal when the ball broke loose. He only came on at half time of course so we can’t comment on his stamina but he looked in good shape to me. What I will say is that, at this moment, I’d say Piroe is a shoe-in as our most forward player; once again today I though Lukas Nmecha was struggling to make an impact, certainly not enough impact to merit a start over Piroe.
Another player who did his reputation no harm today was Karl Darlow – he played the first half and looked solid and confident throughout, as he has done in all his appearances so far in pre-season. He made two very decent saves too. By contrast, Illan Meslier had one or too ‘moments’ today, although he’s also looked generally solid in Pre-season. It probably matters not in that, as long as his injury is cleared up by next Saturday, expect Perri to be the number one keeper choice. Fingers crossed.
Probably the biggest worry at the moment is the injury to Jayden Bogle – Isaac Schmidt deputised for him today but looked unconvincing to me. Bogle, along with Piroe and Willy Gnonto have been, for me, the stars of pre-season so far. Watch this space re Bogle. One relief is the comment from Daniel Farke that Dan James ought to be available next week. All being well I’d expect us to start against Everton with James on one wing and Willy on the other.
So, for me there isn’t much point in delving too much further into the game today. We looked as good as the opposition and they have Champions League pedigree. No one had a mare, the defence looked pretty solid and Brenden Aaronson, playing on the right, did a passable imitation at times of Dan James! Obviously going forward we simply have to recruit another top quality striker with Mateo Joseph determined to leave and, even if he wasn’t, he’s not shown the quality I think we need. Patrick Bamford won’t be playing a part either of course so yes, we need another top number 9 ASAP! We could really do with a more attack minded playmaker too – Stack and Longstaff did ok and we know what Tanaka and Gruev can do but none of them looks likely to push us forward with visionary passing. We didn’t have that sort of a player all last season either, but latterly we found that Joe Rothwell could at least keep us going forward. I don’t see anyone like that in the squad.
So, let’s leave it there for now! Let’s hope for another couple of jigsaw pieces to fall in place and then see how we line up against Everton. At the end of the day, we’ll have no real idea what state we’re in until that game is over!
Pre-season Friendly
Leeds United 1 (Piroe 67’)
Villarreal CF 1 (Eyong 62’)
Leeds: Darlow (GK) (Meslier (GK) 46’), Schmidt (Byram 63’), Rodon, Struijk (Bijol 46’), Gudmundsson, Ampadu (C), Longstaff (Gruev 46’), Stach (Tanaka 63’), Gnonto (Ramazani 63’), Nmecha (Piroe 46’), Aaaronson (Gray 81’). Subs not used: Cairns (GK), Chadwick, Crew.
Referee: Sam Barrott
Venue: Elland Road
Attendance: 35,273
