Boss issues Leeds United internationals warning with player and key Whites figure praise

That, says boss Michael Skubala, is not the be all and end all.

"The jump between youth football and senior football is big,” warns United’s under-21s manager.

Yet there is no hiding the potential of United’s current crop and Skubala says he has the “best job in the world” coaching them, under a first team manager praised by the young team’s boss.

Daniel Farke is now nearly three months into his tenure as Leeds United manager, a role that 21s boss Skubala found himself filling in February, albeit on a temporary/caretaker basis.

After Jesse Marsch had been sacked, Leeds looked to 40-year-old Skubala to take charge of the club’s next three games before the Whites eventually appointed Javi Gracia in United’s bid to beat the drop.

That bid proved unsuccessful as part of a season in which United’s under-21s and first team moved in opposite directions.

Farke, appointed as United’s new manager in July, is now tasked with taking Leeds back to the country’s top division which the club’s youngsters are now back in at Academy level after last season’s play-offs success.

With seven games gone of the new Premier League Two Division One season, Skubala’s side find themselves more than mixing it with the best in sitting mid-table and also top of their Premier League International Cup group.

Seven youth internationals stepped out for United’s under-21s in Sunday’s 2-2 draw at home to Liverpool, after which Skubala ran the rule over his current crop and the bigger picture of an impressive manager in Farke and his own cherished job.

"I think the potential of the group is really good,” Skubala told the YEP. "I think how we get them ready for first team football is still a challenge and we're still learning and we're still consistently working on that every day.

"There's some good youth internationals. But always for me the jump between youth football and senior football is big and sometimes it's not what you can see, it's the management of games and like we've seen in managing moments of games and having to win headers when you need to win headers and some of the basic stuff done really well. But there's definitely some good little footballers in the group. I say little but good and we're fast and we're quick so there's some exciting players to work with."

United’s septet of youth internationals in Sunday’s fixture was formed by Leo Hjelde (Norway under-21s), Diogo Monteiro (Portugal under-19s), Jeremiah Mullen (Scotland under-21s), Lewis Bate (England under-20s), Darko Gyabi (England under-21s), Charlie Allen (Northern Ireland under-21s) and Mateo Joseph (England under-20s).

Three more started out from the bench in James Debayo (England under-18s), Charlie Crew (Wales under-21s) and keeper Dani van den Heuvel (Netherlands under-19s).

Yet it was one of United’s four starters without a youth international cap in 20-year-old English midfielder Sean McGurk that fired Skubala’s side into an early advantage after being set up by Joseph who later doubled the Whites lead as McGurk’s free-kick this time provided the assist.

Liverpool then fought back to bag a 2-2 draw which left Leeds 12th in a whopping 26-team division ahead of Friday night’s return to action at home to Crystal Palace on the same night that Farke’s first team visit Championship leaders Leicester City.

Skubala says he has been impressed by Farke’s work at the club and relishes his role in both attempting to improve players with the ultimate goal of them reaching the Whites first team.

"He's good. He's really good,” said Skubala of Farke. “He's got the first team going, as you can see. I think it was a tricky window for any manager to come in that situation with players coming in and out and not sure and I think you can see by recent results, how well the first team is playing and it's great to have a really experienced Championship manager around the place.

"For me, it’s just about supporting them, we are supporting them with the players that need minutes like you have seen with Leo a little bit and Mateo again and Lew Bate and Darko, we support them and we just have a discussion how we can help the first team so it's always about how we support them really."

Pressed on his own recent journey from 21s boss to interim first team manager and back again, Skubala beamed: “I love it. I've loved both. I think we're in the best job in the world, coaching! Although we get frustrated on the bench, my job is to improve players, whether it's with the 21s, with the first team, whatever it is. And if I'm improving players, I'm loving it."