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Daniel Farke annoyed by Archie Gray workload after Leeds United starlet's England minutes
Daniel Farke has admitted he is unhappy at England Under-19’s using Leeds starlet Archie Gray for 90 minutes three times during the international break.
Gray has been a regular in Farke’s team for the Whites in the Championship this season, and played 90 minutes in all three games for the young Three Lions during the most recent international break.
And the Leeds boss admitted that he had to give Gray Thursday’s training session off so he could recover, and questioned if it made sense for England to use him so much when he’s already playing regularly at club level.
Paraphrasing in a thread on Twitter (19 October) The Athletic’s Phil Hay shared what Farke said about Gray’s usage and revealed that he didn’t train with the rest of the team on Thursday but is still in contention for the game against Norwich on Saturday.
Facts
At Under-19 level, usually the players get most of their minutes when they’re playing with the national team because it’s rare someone so young is playing so regularly at a high level.
But right now Gray is arguably one of the first names on the team sheet in central midfield alongside Ethan Ampadu, and that amount of regular football is undoubtedly more beneficial for him than playing for the England Under-19’s in friendlies.
It would make far more sense for Gray to feature a bit less so that he is fresh for Leeds until he gets to a more competitive level for England, because then obviously it would help him too.
But there was absolutely no need for him to play 90 minutes three times in a week during this international break with the amount of first-team football he has been exposed to so far already.
Farke is trying to protect him and if the FA are smart they will listen to him and start to implement that going forward, because it will only benefit them more in the future too.
In other Leeds news, four ruled out as key duo return for Whites clash v Norwich.