Leeds United have had a dream couple of matches in the Premier League, with a 2-1 away win at arch rivals Manchester United now followed up by an emphatic 3-0 victory over relegation-doomed Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Unlike the Old Gold, who are very much on the brink of the Championship, and have been for some time, Daniel Farke‘s men are now an impressive nine points clear of the relegation spaces, after easing past Rob Edwards’ away side at Elland Road.
It was a fantastic afternoon, if your allegiances are with the West Yorkshire giants, as several players showed the German that they need to be in his starting XI for the rest of the season.
Leeds’ best performers vs Wolves
Virtually everyone donning Leeds’ white put in a lively showing against Wolves on Saturday, with a convincing win secured at the end of the match very much deserved.
Noah Okafor continued his fine form against the visitors from the Midlands, with a brace against Manchester United, then followed up with a blistering goal and assist against the basement side.
With seven goals and one assist next to his name now from only 16 Premier League starts, it’s clear that Farke must retain the red-hot 25-year-old, instead of chucking him back to the bench. Is this the best winger Leeds have had since Raphinha? Perhaps.
It is not just Okafor who staked his claim against United. Indeed, Farke simply has to keep playing midfielder Ao Tanaka, as the Elland Road fan favourite was his usual energetic self, once more, when amassing four key passes and winning two duels from the centre of the park.
The German looks rather foolish that he didn’t throw the Japanese ace into his starting XIs sooner, with the last three games he’s been benched, resulting in Leeds failing to pick up invaluable victories, in their ongoing mission to avoid the drop.
At the back, the Whites have also improved significantly in recent weeks with Karl Darlow more than proving he’s up to the rest of replace Lucas Perri between the sticks. That’s now his third clean sheet in the last four league games
Darlow isn’t the only figure to have helped Leeds to that impressive defensive record. A
Leeds star has gone from Berardi 2.0 to undroppable
Swiss defender Gaetano Berardi was somewhat of a cult figure when he was at Leeds, with the versatile defender once lauded as giving “everything” for the cause by the iconic Marcelo Bielsa.
Unfortunately, while he was beloved by sections of the passionate Whites fanbase for his ability to come into a team all across the defence, and even the midfield, he is mostly remembered – to this day – for having wretched injury luck during his 157-game stay in West Yorkshire.
Across both the 2018/19 season and the 2019/20 season, Berardi was absent for a colossal 54 clashes, owing to a mixture of knee injuries, hamstring injuries, and a devastating anterior cruciate ligament injury.
The worry would have been that Leeds were signing an equally injury-prone player in James Justin when they forked out £10m for his services last summer, from relegated Leicester City.
Justin injury record at Leicester
Metric
Justin
Games played
169
Minutes played
13,210 mins
Games out injured
78
Day missed through injuries
547 days
It was a risk, considering Justin had missed a hefty 78 games through injury, when situated at the King Power.
But, he has remained injury-free since swapping the Foxes for Farke and Co, and he has become an extremely dependable first-team performer in the process.
Indeed, much like Berardi’s versatile nature, the Luton-born defender has managed to line up across five different positions for the Whites this season, and he has very rarely let the side down.
Instead of looking injury-prone and fatigued, Justin has been boundless with his energy levels when starting under Farke this season, with a gritty nine duels won against Wolves, helping to preserve the clean sheet. He also pulled off an audacious overhead kick to break the nervy deadlock, with his calm finish noted as being an “amazing” bit of skill by journalist Graham Smyth.
He is simply undroppable at the moment, when most feared, he would struggle to regularly play, looking at his horrendous track record in the treatment room.
Justin is just loving his football at the moment, having recently divulged that his final season at Leicester was the “worst” season of his career.
Now, he’s arguably in the finest patch of his up-and-down playing days, as he is undroppable in the Leeds first team fold.
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