Jon Newsome names ‘Outstanding’ Leeds United duo who will frighten opponents
Jon Newsome believes Pascal Struijk and Joe Rodon were “outstanding” as Leeds United beat Derby Count and described the duo as “frightening” for Championship opponents.
The Whites left Pride Park victorious as they triumphed over the Rams 1-0 thanks to an impressive second-half finish from Brenden Aaronson.
Thanks to the three points they earned on 29 December, they managed to cement their spot at the top of the Championship table and created a two-point cushion between themselves and second-placed Sheffield United.
Speaking on BBC Radio Leeds’ West Yorkshire Sport Football Forum (29 December), BBC pundit Newsome shared why teams should be frightened of Leeds’ centre-back pairing.
“The two centre-halves were outstanding tonight, if you can keep clean sheets coming away from home, you’re giving yourself a real opportunity,” he said.
“Especially with that front four, that forward line, it’s a six, a seven or an eight because we’ve got that many players in reserve now and that many players within the squad that can come on and change the game.
“It’s frightening for anybody who we come up against”.
Leeds United should earn promotion to the Premier League this season
Since the start of the season, the West Yorkshire outfit have been mooted as one of the favourites to win the second-tier title.
While at times there have been bumps in the road, Leeds have really found their mojo and things have been going swimmingly in recent games, resulting in them hitting the top of the pile.
Daniel Farke has one of the strongest teams in the league by some distance and, to be quite frank, it would be more of a shock to see them drop out of the automatic promotion spots than it would be to see them lift the title.
As long as their performances carry on at this standard over the rest of the 2024/25 campaign, it feels like the Whites should have more than enough quality within their ranks to regain their Premier League status.
Which, in reality, is all that everyone involved with the club could have asked for at the start of the season.
In other Leeds news, the Whites need to prove Adam Pope wrong and give Daniel Farke a January gift to help them earn Premier League promotion.
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