Leeds United: A New Dawn

PRE-SEASON OVERVIEW: TACTICS



For the coming season, I will be employing a 4-4-2 diamond system with wing backs. I am currently struggling on the right, with the injury to Sam Byram and my failure to sign a second right wing back, hence the temporary presence of Paul Green in that position. This formation gives me 7 players behind the ball when defending, as the two wing backs and two box-to-box midfielders will come back to support my already present centre backs and my defensive midfielder. Going forward, we will also have 7 in attack, with the the two wing backs and two box-to-box midfielders running up the pitch to support my attacking midfielder and two strikers.



Most of the decisions made on here are out of preference, for example I prefer to play a fast game with short passes and have my players put themselves about when defending. The depth and width are out of principle, with the wing backs being the only players on the flanks, it's important we get the ball out to them as often as possible. The depth was more something I learned, as we leaked a lot of goals for being pushed up too high with the default setting (which will soon show in pre-season results), so I set the defenders to sit deeper, providing adequate guard whilst the wing backs and centre midfielders head back to help out

PRE-SEASON OVERVIEW: RESULTS



A mixed bag of results which I'll put mostly down to the players trying to get to grips with a slightly less recognisable tactic.

We looked very comfortable against Dinamo however, with a strong first half display in which we could and should have scored more.

Ross McCormack

Steaua Bucharest represented a sligtly different challenge and one which for all their hard work, the players couldn't quite face up to in a 3-2 loss.

Luke Parkin
Simon Lenighan

The result against Bristol Rovers was one I was expecting, but it was encouraging to see young Lewis Walters grab himself a goal.

Ross McCormack (2)
Lewis Walters

The first half performance at MK Dons was shameful and saw us go into half-time 4-0 down. Another impressive display in the second half from Lewis Walters as well as goals from McCormack and Poleon unfortunately wasn't enough to avoid a 5-4 defeat.

Lewis Walters (2)
Ross McCormack
Dominic Poleon

The final friendly against Guiseley could have got embarassing as we spent much of the first half trailing 1-0 with little sign of an equaliser. Simon Lenighan saved our bacon before half time with a goal to make it 1-1 and a much improved seond half display saw us go 4-1 up before a Paddy Kenny mistake saw them pull one back to make it 4-2.

Simon Lenighan
Michael Brown
Ross McCormack (2)

CALDERON JOINS LEEDS ON EVE OF SEASON OPENER

http://www.seagulls.co.uk/cms_images/news/calde-l229-1261175_478x359.jpg

With just 22 hours until Leeds kick off the season against Brighton & Hove Albion, Seagulls wing back Inigo Calderon has completed a transfer to the Yorkshire club on a three-year deal, for a fee believed to be around £215,000.

Leeds are thought to have been looking for a right wing back all summer to challenge Sam Byram for a first team place and Calderon could well be the missing piece of the Leeds United jigsaw this season.