Rocco's Round-Up (8/12/23 to 14/12/23)
Friday, 8th December 2023
Daniel Farke was today confirmed as the Championship's manager of the month, an award that he should be pretty pretty pleased about. He wont be dancing on any tables, but I hope he enjoyed a nice piece of cake on the sofa. The good vibes continued with Archie Gray's interview in the Guardian, in which the 'deeply grounded' 17-year-old spoke of his ambition to win the Champions League with Leeds, captain England and win the Balon D'Or.
Saturday, 9th December 2023
Leeds continued their magnificent run of form with an accomplished 2-0 away victory in tough conditions at Ewood Park. The first assist of Archie Gray's Leeds career was the highlight, it was sumptuous, and with another goal each James and Jimmy are becoming the EFL version of Sala and Sadio with their prolific exploits from the wings. That’s nine wins from the last 11 games for Farke’s merry men. Leicester and Ipswich won too of course, but Southampton lost further ground after conceding a 97th minute equaliser against Watford.
Sunday, 10th December 2023
The statisticians today revealed that in 30 years of “The Championship”, no team has ever collected as many points from their first 20 games as Leicester and Ipswich have this season. Stretching back 40 years, only Kevin Keegan’s Newcastle have collected as many as Leicester’s 49 points. Frankly, I think the statisticians need to work a little harder, because I’m quite sure the second division will never have seen two teams make such a fast start in history. Nevertheless, it’s remarkable enough that we are competing against two of the three best second division campaigns out of 960 since 1993. Leeds That!
Monday, 11th December 2023
Ian Carlos Poveda-Ocampo made his international debut last night, playing 80mins of Colombia’s 1-0 friendly win against Paraguay. Poveda had a shot off target amongst his 29 touches, and his one dribble was apparently more than any other player managed, in what appears to have been a turgid affair (won by an own goal). Meanwhile Daniel Farke gave another wonderful performance in his pre-Sunderland presser. It was honest, insightful, and sensible; what a great leader we have. Interestingly, the boss confirmed that Leeds will be on the hunt for a left-back in January, not because of the current injuries to Byram (three weeks) and Firpo (a few days), but because of their injury history. 'Perfect' said Farke as the presser concluded, clearly happy with his display.
Tuesday, 12th December 2023
Farke can't have been happy with his team's display on Wearside, as Leeds suffered a typical 1-0 defeat at the hands of Sunderland. There were few good performances, and although the away team dominated for large periods, their inferior hosts made the best chances and deserved the three points. A bad night was compounded as Ipswich got the job done in an equally difficult away game at Watford, prevailing 2-1. United now trail the Tractor Boys by 10 points.
Wednesday, 13th December 2023
Leicester won again tonight, amplifying the already raging debate amongst Leeds fans, who are split into two camps: being happy with a points haul that would normally take you to the top of the league, and being pissed-off that such a talented squad is 10 points off the pace. I find myself in both camps and it's very confusing, therefore it might be better to concentrate on happier occurrences, like Victor Orta's Sevilla team crashing out of the Champions League group stages with no wins and a bottom place finish, as did Brendan Aaronson's Union Berlin. The scum also finished bottom of their group, while Kalvin Phillips scored his first Champions League goal, a late penalty that he was allowed to take out of pity.
Thursday, 14th December 2023
No presser from Farke today, but the under-fire German can't hide forever and will need to face the music tomorrow. Only joking, we love him really, he's working unbelievable hard and I am sure his lads will come out fighting on Saturday.