Leeds United: Graham Smyth shares manager admission, makes ‘steamroll’ prediction v Southampton
Graham Smyth is interested to see what Southampton manager Russell Martin does against Leeds United on the back of a poor run of results.
Speaking on the Yorkshire Evening Post’s Inside Elland Road podcast on Wednesday (27 September), the journalist said the Saints boss can’t “suddenly sacrifice” his style after just eight league games.
But he suggested that the Whites could go to St Mary’s on Saturday (30 September) and “steamroll” the hosts after the two sides have had contrasting runs of form recently.
“I’ll be really interested to see what Russell Martin does because you can’t suddenly sacrifice your style, you can’t suddenly introduce a new style, not after eight games,” said Smyth.
“Their director of football, which is (Jason) Wilcox, he said before the season ‘you might as well get behind this because this is not changing, this is the project’.
“I’m very interested to see what he does. I’m not suggesting that Leeds are going to go there and steamroll them, I’m just saying Leeds could go there and steamroll them.”
Feet on the ground
It’s important that the Leeds players continue to keep their feet on the ground despite picking up a string of impressive results over the past few weeks.
Daniel Farke has the necessary know-how of the Championship to understand that it can be an unforgiving league and things can change quickly if you don’t continue doing the right things.
The Whites have built from the back recently and that has allowed them to look more of a threat going forward after a slightly unconvincing start to the campaign.
Southampton, however, got off to an absolute flyer in their first few matches under Martin, but they have now lost four games in a row and have conceded 12 goals in that time.
It will be interesting to see if the Saints stick with their expansive style of play, offering the West Yorkshire side the opportunity to sit in and soak up pressure before hitting them on the counter.
In other Leeds United news, the club are looking to put Victor Orta behind them with a new appointment set to be made.