Jesse Marsch will be hard pushed to find positives out of Saturday’s 5-2 defeat to Brentford at the Gtech Community Stadium. The Whites were comfortably second best and they were duly put to the sword by Thomas Frank’s rampant Bees.
Calamitous mistakes came at the back, the midfield was ineffective and they struggled to prevent Brentford from seizing control of the contest. Things could have gone differently had Patrick Bamford finished his gilt-edged chance in front of goal or even if the referee had decided to take a second look at the Crysencio Summerville penalty decision that eventually led to Marsch being sent to the stands.
Leeds were deserved losers in west London and the head coach understandably cut a frustrated figure in his post-match press conference. However, Marsch will have been delighted to see Luke Ayling return to action after several months on the sidelines.
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The right-back hasn’t been seen since he was shown a red card in the defeat at Arsenal in May, with knee surgery over the summer ruling him out of pre-season and the first five games of the new campaign. As such, his presence on the bench in west London was a welcome one when the team news filtered through at 2pm.
Rasmus Kristensen’s injury meant Cody Drameh started at right-back for the Whites, but Ayling, who has been close to fitness for some time, according to the head coach, was given a warm welcome by supporters as he emerged onto the field to warm up. Unfortunately, the game looked to be gone by the time he eventually got the nod to go on in the 70 th minute, but he certainly took the opportunity to give the head coach some food for thought.
Almost instantly Ayling gave Leeds a presence on the right-hand side of the field, advancing forward with vigour and carrying the ball into dangerous positions. He threw himself into challenges and gave Rico Henry something to think about down the edge in the final 20 minutes of the game.
It was Ayling who carved out Leeds’ second of the game, too, with his low cross being poked home by Marc Roca from short range. He couldn’t prevent Leeds conceding moments later as Robin Koch and Diego Llorente failed to deal with a long ball over the top.
However, the right-back certainly made the desired impact when he entered the fray. Of course, his workload will continue to be managed over the next few weeks, but it seems Marsch may have a decision to make ahead of next Monday’s Premier League clash with Nottingham Forest.
Kristensen is expected to be fit for the game at Elland Road, but his spot in the side can hardly be considered secure at this stage. The Denmark international has struggled to acclimatise himself to life in the Premier League since his move to West Yorkshire over the summer and he has come in for criticism for some of his performances.
As such, should he be considered fit to take on Forest he may well find himself under pressure this week as Ayling battles to reclaim his first-team spot. There is a chance that Ayling may not be ready to make his first start of the season just yet, but he may just have planted a seed of thought in Marsch’s thoughts in the coming weeks.
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