Ilia Gruev faces Leeds United axe for clash v Coventry City after what happened at weekend
Leeds United have managed to get themselves back to winning ways after cruising past Cardiff City with a 2-0 victory in the Welsh capital.
The Whites now find themselves sixth in the Championship, just five points adrift of league leaders West Brom.
Although the vast majority of Daniel Farke’s men put in a solid shift and ensured that the West Yorkshire outfit left Wales with all three points, there was one player who didn’t perform to the same level as his teammates.
That player being Ilia Gruev. Of course, it wasn’t to the point where he cost his team the game or anything, but there were a few moments during the clash where it got a bit hairy for the Bulgaria international.
Hence why Farke may have to look at axing the midfielder from his starting line-up ahead of their game against Coventry City on 28 September.
This is without even taking into consideration that fans were booing the midfielder after what he did during the game [Graham Smyth, 21 September].
Leeds United need to axe Ilia Gruev
The Bulgaria international was partnered alongside club captain Ethan Ampadu, who helped clean up some of the mistakes he made throughout the clash.
As per Sofascore, the 24-year-old had three shots throughout the game and only one managed to get on target, which left him with a shot accuracy of just 33 per cent.
He also failed to make any key passes throughout the game and of the two crosses he attempted, neither of them made it where they were supposed to go.
The same goes for long balls as, of the four passes he tried to make, just one made it to where it was intended to, leaving him with a long ball accuracy of just 25 per cent.
Defensively, the defensive-midfielder wasn’t much better either. The Bulgaria international attempted four ground duels and won just one, leaving him with yet another 25 per cent accuracy rate.
Aerially he was far stronger as he managed to win 100 per cent (one) of his duels but he did manage to lose possession a total of seven times, which is fairly high.
Gruev failed to make any clearances and didn’t manage to block any shots, either. He did, however, make one interception and one tackle so that’s something at least.
When Leeds have a plethora of talent on their bench such as “bargain” summer transfer Ao Tanaka [The Athletic, 5 September], it doesn’t feel like it makes much sense for Farke to keep persisting with the Bulgarian, at least not for their next game anyway.
In other Leeds United news, Graham Smyth spotted one Peacocks player being shouted at by Farke from the touchline against Cardiff.
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