Recovery will be just as important as graft for Leeds United as they head into the final international break of the season on the back of their thrilling weekend win. The Whites scored four goals for the first time since November 5 as they marched into the fortnight-long break in 14th place.
It’s a crucial opportunity for the club’s new head coach to get his claws into the players and work on aspects of the game he may not have had a chance for up to now. Javi Gracia will know only too well how quickly the table can shift on a bad weekend with four points still separating the bottom nine clubs in the table.
Title-chasing Arsenal will present their own set of challenges on their own patch, but beyond that, the home double-header with Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace is a huge opportunity for the Whites to put some real space between themselves and the dogfight.
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Gracia had suggested the early part of this week may not see too much high-intensity work going on. Ten players he has used in matchday squads across recent weeks will be absent on international duty and he expects there to be roughly the same number left behind.
Illan Meslier, Luke Ayling, Junior Firpo, Robin Koch, Marc Roca, Patrick Bamford, Crysencio Summerville, Jack Harrison, Rodrigo, Pascal Struijk, Joel Robles, Luis Sinisterra and Georginio Rutter are fit, but have not been called up for their countries. They will form the nucleus of Gracia’s Thorp Arch working group.
The head coach did not name names, but he did admit there would be some needing a rest after the Wolves match with various niggles needing some time to settle down. That could mean today and tomorrow are a little quieter than normal.
"We'll see because [in] our next training session we'll have maybe 10 players with us and the rest of the players are with different national teams,” said Gracia. “Then we try to work and prepare well [for] the game, but for sure my players deserve as well some days to recover.
“We have many players with some different pains and they have to recover and, after, prepare as best as possible for the next game against Arsenal."
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