MOT View: Behind-the-scenes info heard by Sky Sports pundit could relate to new Leeds player
January signing Jean-Kevin Augustin made his first appearance in a Leeds United shirt one Monday – albeit for the Under-23s.
Augustin, 22, started for Carlos Corberan’s side as they drew 2-2 against Sheffield Wednesday’s Under-23s at Hillsborough.
The French striker, who signed on loan from RB Leipzig last month, had a quiet game before a planned substitution at half-time saw his Leeds debut last just 45 minutes.
However there was concern just before the break when he went down and required treatment.
MOT Leeds News has since heard from Corberan that Augustin is not injured and should be fine to train with the first-team on Tuesday.
Marcelo Bielsa has avoided naming Augustin in his matchday squad for both of the two Championship games since his arrival last month, even though he has been available.
It seems as though the Argentine is taking his time before introducing the 22-year-old into his first-team plans and Sky Sports pundit Andy Hinchcliffe has suggested that the same thing happened when Helder Costa arrived on loan from Wolves in the summer.
Costa, 26, joined Leeds on July 3 but did not start a league game for the Whites until September 28.
Bielsa lets players take their time to get used to the physical and mental aspects of his tactics before unleashing them in his senior squad, according to what Hinchcliffe has heard from behind the scenes at Elland Road.
“He actually did this with Helder Costa,” the former Sheffield Wednesday defender said on Sky Sports’ EFL Podcast. “When he first signed, people presumed he was going to be straight in the team but, speaking to people behind the scenes at Leeds, basically they ran the socks off him to get his energy levels up.”
“If you look at the way Leeds play, it’s demanding, it’s high energy.
“Bielsa needs to get new signings up to speed by physically working them on the training ground.
“He’ll take them in the classroom and show them the videos about how he wants them to play before he lets them loose in the first-team.”
Let’s hope it does not take as long for Augustin to start a league game as it did for Costa.
Between Costa’s move from Molineux being confirmed and his first Championship start for Leeds, there were 87 days – almost three months.
For Augustin to have the impact that the Whites need, he cannot take that long to get up to speed with Bielsa’s methods. He has to be ready to start within a matter of weeks – not months.
Hopefully that process will be accelerated by the fact that the Yorkshire giants are struggling at the moment whereas at the start of the season, it wasn’t completely necessary that Costa started.
But if Patrick Bamford continues to squander chances as he has done in the last few weeks, then Augustin should be starting for Leeds soon enough.
In other Leeds United news, Charlie Taylor has made an admission about his exit from Elland Road in 2017.