Championship outfit Leeds United came extremely close to securing a playoff spot last season. Under the tutelage of Garry Monk, the Whites kept pencilling the desired outputs for the major chunk of the season, but owing to their sporadic run of form in the business end, they withered away and failed to make into the top six. However, it was relishing seeing how they hit the right chords more often than not.
Now that Thomas Christiansen has been handed the steering wheel, Leeds United should be looking forward to earning promotion to the Premier League by taking full advantage of the pedestal that was created last season. In order to do the needful, Christiansen has made some astute signings over the course of the summer transfer window to bolster his side’s credentials. Intriguingly, one of the notable ramifications he has made has been with respect to the goalkeeping position.
At the onset of the summer transfer window, it was perceived that the Yorkshire based outfit weren’t going to alter their goalkeeper’s slot, as Robert Green and Marco Silvestri were still in their books. However, the former APOEL manager signed Felix Wiedwald from Werder Bremen on a permanent deal, farmed out Silvestri to Hellas Verona and brought Andy Lonergan from Wolverhampton Wanderers. Despite Green’s prominence last season, Christiansen went into the new season with Wiedwald as his no.1 shot-stopper, which did raise a lot of eyebrows.
The 27-year-old has produced appealing outputs so far, having bagged 4 clean sheets in 5 Championship games and prior to the closure of the summer transfer window, the Peacocks allowed Green to leave for newly promoted Premier League side Huddersfield Town.
Further, Bailey Peacock-Farrell, who is very highly rated at the club, has been kept on the roster as he is touted as the future goalkeeper of the club so that he can learn the manner of operating between the sticks just like the way Christiansen demands.
A breeze of revolution is blowing across the English second division club and under the stewardship of Christiansen, the goalkeepers are demanded to put the ball into play on the floor. Wiedwald’s inclusion on a regular basis, thus, makes a lot of sense.
The goalie eyes of creating offensive endeavours for his side from the back and distributes the ball meticulously. Further, his contributions as a custodian between the sticks have also been exemplary and with Lonergan as a back-up, it shouldn’t be hard to deduce that Leeds United’s goalkeeper’s position is pretty much sorted.
