Leeds United’s pre-season tour of Australia came to an end with a 1-1 draw against Crystal Palace at the Optus Stadium in Perth. The Whites have been on the road for two weeks now and they’ll fly back to the United Kingdom on Saturday to continue their preparations for the new Premier League season.
Jesse Marsch’s side beat A-League outfit Brisbane Roar in Gold Coast before losing 1-0 to Aston Villa at the Suncorp Stadium prior to their tie with Palace. They’ve been worked hard on the training ground and fans have had a good look at the club’s new signings, too.
Here’s a look at the winners and losers of the Whites’ tour Down Under.
Read more: Leeds United injury updates on Luis Sinisterra and Adam Forshaw leave Jesse Marsch ruing training
Winners
Rasmus Kristensen
The right-back looks to have been Leeds’ best piece of business in the summer window and he’s wasted no time in settling into the club on the right side of defence. He’s starred in all three games in the Southern Hemisphere, getting forward well, linking up confidently with those in attack and working hard without the ball, too.
He’s a confident player and he fits into Jesse Marsch’s intense and action-packed philosophy well. He gives the side width and his balls into the area look set to cause problems, too. The Whites play Cagliari next Sunday at Elland Road and supporters will be keen to catch a glimpse of Kristensen once more before the Premier League gets underway on August 6.
Pascal Struijk
Struijk didn’t have the best game against the Eagles on Friday as he failed to look comfortable in the left-back position, but he has been a success story Down Under, overall. The defender played the full 90 minutes in Leeds’ game against Brisbane Roar and looked the part and he performed confidently against Villa, too, at the Suncorp Stadium, despite Leeds falling to their only defeat of the tour.
Marsch’s selection against Palace spoke volumes about his thinking regarding the left-back spot ahead of the opener and it seems that Struijk could be an option should the club fail to sign a left-back in time for the first game against Wolves.
Marc Roca
Another new signing to impress during the tour of Australia. Roca doesn’t lack energy and his passion, competitiveness and desire to win is visible on the field of play and in training. He’s settled well into the squad and the team has undoubtedly looked better with him in it.
Roca struggled for game time at his previous club Bayern Munich, but his performances on tour have been enough to suggest he will be a regular at Elland Road. He’s aggressive in defence and talented with the ball at his feet and he’s certainly shown that over the last fortnight.
Jesse Marsch
The head coach succeeded in keeping Leeds in the Premier League last season and over the last couple of weeks he will hope to have made a sizable impact on his squad as he aims to make the necessary improvements to kick on this time around. He’s had the time on the training ground to hammer home his philosophy and while Leeds haven’t always picked up the result, there’s been plenty to be pleased about in every performance.
Marsch openly admitted in his post-match press conference in Perth that his side have a lot of work still to do and he’ll hope to make even more progress at Thorp Arch when the squad returns to Yorkshire.
Losers
Liam Cooper
The skipper will be travelling back to the UK without getting a minute of first-team action due to the Achilles injury he picked up in the weeks before the tour started. The injury isn’t thought to be a serious one, but it has kept him out of the three friendlies and he hasn’t been able to train for much of the trip.
He’ll be keen to get back to Thorp Arch and get some more work done as he targets a spot in the Leeds side for the opening day of the season. When Cooper is fit, Cooper starts and Leeds could do with his leadership and character in the backline, that is for certain.
Luis Sinisterra
The winger only joined Leeds a couple of days before they boarded the plane to Queensland and his lack of game time over the first two games suggested he wasn’t quite fit enough to play extended minutes. He picked up 30 minutes against the Roar before making a brief appearance against Villa a few days later.
However, he was given the chance to start against Palace and he did look relatively lively in the first 10 minutes or so. Unfortunately, though, he went down fairly innocuously just 13 minutes into the game with a hamstring injury and was forced off the field. Marsch was hopeful that the injury wouldn’t keep him out for too long, but it remains to be seen whether the Colombia international will miss the start of the season.
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