Leeds United: Problem-solver Roofe deserves opening goal for in-form Whites - Whelan

SATURDAY's WIN against Aston Villa was absolutely brilliant.
Kemar RoofeKemar Roofe
Kemar Roofe

We have got a team of men out there, people who can wear the shirt, people that embrace playing at Elland Road in front of the fantastic fans yet again.

It was a stiff test and in the first half it was two teams cancelling each other out with a lot of hard work off the ball and not many chances.

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But sometimes you are going to get that and you can see that Steve Bruce has got his team hard to beat now. They are working hard, pressing from the front and we did that as well as there wasn’t much between the two teams in the first half.

In the second half, the game opened up a little bit but I do think overall that Leeds deserved the win and there were some fantastic performances. It was a great team performance with some great individual performances as well.

Kemar Roofe obviously got the opening goal and he has been fantastic for about six weeks now. He was problem solving out there because he was man-marked by Mile Jedinak all through the first half.

You couldn’t get balls into him because he was being shadowed but he solved the problem in the second half and that’s what good players do – you have got to solve problems when you are out there on the field.

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He decided he was going to move away and try and get the space and get on to the ball and get into the game and affect it. He certainly did that and he was nice and brave too, which is what you expect from your No 10.

You have got to run past centre-forwards sometimes and into the box and it was a delightful ball in from Souleymane Doukara on his weaker foot. But what a perfect ball.

The ’keeper was coming out but Roofe kept his eye, he kept his concentration and that boy deserves that goal because he has done everything right and he has been so unlucky with chances. He has done everything but score goals so if anyone deserves that then he definitely does.

I think right now everyone is playing their part and it’s so difficult to say who should be in the team. Even Alex Mowatt when he came on, looked sharp and hungry.

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So what you have got there is not just a good Leeds United XI out there but also a good Leeds United squad where players can come on and do their job.

They are all singing off the same hymn sheet, with the same amount of passion, pride and work rate because that’s what is expected by Garry Monk.

Garry is brilliant. He is fantastic and he is showing why he is such a good manager. He is very calm, he keeps his feet firmly on the ground and that’s what he does with the players as well.

What he is doing off the field that we don’t see is being implemented through results and how they are playing now.

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It’s not just about going out there on a Saturday and putting in a performance, it starts on the training field and with all of the hard work that Garry is doing with the players and all the research of the teams you are playing against.

We have now got a great group of lads, a great team spirit, a togetherness about us and when you have got that in your changing room that can be the best weapon and the most successful way to be successful throughout the season.

We have now moved fourth in the table and can we finish in the play-offs? Possibly. But we keep saying that this league is unforgiving and sometimes you don’t get the results you deserve and on other days you get a little bit of luck and you get away with things.

But what we have got is a team that will compete every single game and we have players that can have that moment of brilliance and can change a game out of nothing. We saw that with Hadi Sacko with the second goal. He showed a great turn of pace and he was very direct. It wasn’t one of his best performances today but he is a player that can create something out of nothing and that’s why he is very valuable to have.

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Without that, Chris Wood doesn’t get that goal and Wood did the right thing what every good centre forward should do which is following every shot because it would have been cleared off the line. Without Wood doing that it wouldn’t have been the 2-0 result that we got.