One Leeds United eye began to drift towards Thursday’s friendly with Elche as the players began their third day of training in Spain. Tuesday morning saw the return of Diego Llorente to the group, though he remained in the gym with Luis Sinisterra after undergoing hand surgery on Monday.
Stuart Dallas spent more time outdoors, but again restricted his involvement to some lighter moments at the back end of the session. Junior Firpo was expected to arrive at the Oliva Nova resort later in the day before playing a part on the grass in Wednesday’s session.
After a series of hard exercises on Monday, Tuesday was a lighter, shorter day with an afternoon free for the players to unwind and, in some cases, play golf together along the 18-hole course on site. After the initial warm-ups around the pitch, the players took positions around the centre-circle and went through some swift pass-and-move drills which left you wondering how they avoided running into one another.
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Set-pieces would then form the crux of the day with the squad divided into two and sent to either end of the pitch. Corners and free-kicks, attacking and defending, Jesse Marsch oversaw one end and Mark Jackson, wearing a microphone for a Premier League Productions crew, the other.
At Marsch’s end, Marc Roca, Mateusz Klich and Adam Forshaw would trade the deliveries from each side, honing their hand gestures to let their team-mates in the box know what was coming. Dani van den Heuvel, showing no signs of the horrific neck injury he suffered in a car crash last summer, was between the sticks.
Robin Koch would come away from the drills a little early after wincing with some discomfort. He could be seen stretching out his Achilles/calf area briefly before walking back to the changing rooms.
Crysencio Summerville was someone we did see return to training on Tuesday. The last sighting of him had been the hobble away on Monday after a sore tackle from Roca.
The Dutch winger played a full part in training and was even put through the pitch-perimeter running he had missed 24 hours earlier. There’s no slacking on this camp.
Training would finish with the intrasquad competition we have previously seen on the Australian training camp last summer. The group was split into three and stationed on the edge of one 18-yard box, facing the halfway line.
Sonny Perkins, Klich, Leo Hjelde, Liam Cooper, Roca and Joel Robles were in one unit. Sam Greenwood, Jack Harrison, Mateo Joseph, van den Heuvel, Cody Drameh, Dallas and Luke Ayling were in another.
The third group consisted of Forshaw, Rodrigo, Darko Gyabi, Pascal Struijk, Joe Gelhardt and Wilfried Gnonto. This sextet would prove to be the victor.
The aim was to pass a ball from the edge of the box and the closest finish to the halfway line on each attempt would pick up the most points. Ayling would cheekily suggest, after one Greenwood effort, there should be double points for using your weaker foot.
There were the standard free-kick extras after the session from the likes of Greenwood, but ultimately Tuesday was not designed to tire the players too much. More training awaits on Wednesday and even Thursday morning before the trip to Elche too.
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