IMPROVEMENTS NEEDED

Leeds United manager Brian McDermott has said that his players need to improve substantially in order to the first-team regular when the season eventually begins in two weeks time. Leeds United have been experiencing mediocre form in the pre-season. As a result, the club recently suffered a defeat against Walsall in a friendly match. Leeds will be opening the new Championship season with the match against Brighton. Even though the club will be without Gus Poyet as their manager, Brighton are still expected to carry on the form from last season.

McDermott has revealed that he is yet to decide on his first 11 because none of the players have impressed him in the pre-season matches. According to him, the first team places are still up for grabs and the players still have sufficient time to impress him. Leeds United appointed Brian McDermott as a replacement for Neil Warnock. McDermott has been given the task of getting the club back into the Premier league. One of the main problems in the pre-season so far has been a lack of workrate and energy according to McDermott, but he reckons that this will improve as the season progresses.

He wants the players to show that they want to be in the first team.

“It’s up for grabs (for the Brighton game), and we need to nail that down and take it for the first game of the season. There will be different players playing on Tuesday. I think what we have got now is that every player has played a certain amount of game time, but obviously come the Nurnberg game things will change again. I know these guys can pass it and are good players, but without the ball we have to be much better,” said the former Reading manager who was back in the job shortly after his sacking from Reading.

, July 29, 2013. Category: Uncategorized. Tagged: .

PROMOTION CHALLENGE

Leeds United manager Brian McDermott has said that he is looking to prepare for the promotion challenge next season from now itself. The safety of the club in the Championship was recently confirmed after the recent round of results in the division. Even though he was defeated in his first match as the Leeds United manager, McDermott has overseen a campaign in which Leeds United will be guaranteed Championship football next season due to results from other grounds going their way. The club was expected to challenge for promotion under Neil Warnock, but it never really materialised.

The former Reading manager said that he is extremely delighted with the fact that the club’s position in the championship has been secured for another season. Since their safety secured, he can concentrate on looking at players to sign for next season. The club are expected to strengthen over the summer with some of the current players being sold in order to generate the transfer funds. McDermott already has the experience of getting promoted into the Premier league to the automatic play-offs position as he did the same with Reading.

However, he was sacked by the club a few months ago after a poor run of results left them bottom of the table.

“We’re definitely safe in this league now and I’m delighted with that. The players have given us everything. That was job number one, two and three. I put myself on the line to come in at that stage of the season so that was the job. It was A, B and C – one, two and three and we’ve done that now and we’re all delighted that we’re now mathematically safe and can move forward. There’s no point talking about us playing ok and still lost the game, you don’t win championships by just playing okay,” said McDermott.

, May 28, 2013. Category: Uncategorized. Tagged: .
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