This is not a drill. It’s actually hard to believe though. Thomas Christiansen has done what no other Leeds manager has done in history for their first 7 games in charge. Some haven’t even made the milestone but one of the biggest question marks as an appointment not only has, but has created history.
Played – 7
Won – 5
Drawn – 2
Christiansen arrived from Leeds after guiding APOEL to the title in Cyprus and leading them to the last 16 of the knockout stages in the Europa League. He has barely been in management at all but landed the Leeds job after impressing Andrea Radrizzani, Ivan Bravo and Victor Orta in Madrid, most notably with a detailed powerpoint of games from last season and a rundown of the entire first-team squad. He hasn’t had it easy either, losing Kyle Bartley, Charlie Taylor and Chris Wood from the first-team squad, three players that were all first-team regulars (Taylor when he actually wanted to be here).
He has had to gel new players with existing in abundance and has to improve on last seasons 7th placed finish, a position we would have snapped up before the season had started but ended up flopping to. The likes of Samu Saiz and Ezgjan Alioski have impressed hugely and others who weren’t expected to be in the plans have been brilliant, Liam Cooper and in the last couple of games Kalvin Phillips, my #PAS Man of the Match last night after an outstanding performance in the middle of the park at Nottingham Forest, a game we absolutely dominated from start to finish. Taking out Leeds favourite Rob Green has gone very smooth, no goals conceded in the last four league games, a stat that is very hard to argue with when you say that Rob Green should be the number one at the club.
The opening games haven’t been straight forward either. Bolton away was always winnable but a tricky tie all the same, the two league cup games have been as straight-forward as they come but games against Sunderland and Forest away, and Fulham at home are all extremely tricky games. The Preston game was one we expected to win but given their early season form it has turned out to be a good result, with the results that have followed. we are the only side in the Football League who haven’t lost a game in any competition this season and are sitting third in the league, not far off the top and well ahead of some promotion favourites in the division.
