Minutes have never been a problem for Luke Ayling at Leeds United. In his first six seasons with the Whites, Ayling was never outside the club’s top 10 for pitch time, even when injuries hit.
The right-back has been at the core of the club’s rise from mid-table Championship mediocrity to a third-straight Premier League campaign. Now 31, vice-captain and a central figure in Jesse Marsch’s leadership council, 2022/23 is shaping up to be a year of transition for Ayling.
The arrival of Denmark’s Rasmus Kristensen combined with summer surgery has asked questions of Ayling and pushed him into a supporting role from the sidelines. Every coach will tell you they crave competition for places, but Marsch has an especially neat balancing act with such a senior figure in Ayling now asked to watch from the bench week by week.
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Marsch knows it will be hard for Ayling, now closer to 35 than 25, to watch these Leeds games go by while someone else fills his role on the pitch. The head coach has made one request of the number two while keeping him on the bench for so much of this term.
“My way of working with all the guys is to clearly communicate the plans and the next steps for them to continue to grow and develop,” said Marsch. “It's even more important when they're really important figures in the team.
“Certainly Luke is that for us. So I've just tried to communicate decisions, I've tried to communicate what we need from him for him to continue to show, to be the example of how to handle difficulty with decision making from the manager and he's done that really well and to continue to be supportive of the group and to be ready to perform.
“That's the job. He's done that at an incredibly high level and he's going to get more and more playing time, I'm sure."
Unlike Kristensen, Ayling has not gone to the World Cup this month and will be expected at Thorp Arch with the majority of the United squad from Monday. Denmark play France today and Australia on Wednesday in what’s shaping up to be a decisive fixture in deciding their progression.
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