Pundit disagrees with Chris Wilder's Leeds United claim as Middlesbrough man sends Championship promotion message
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Leeds United’s spell at the top of the Championship was short-lived once again, but things are looking good at Elland Road going into the festive fixture chaos. Daniel Farke’s side dispatched Middlesbrough on Tuesday evening to pull three points clear of third-placed Burnley and four clear of Sunderland, who drew against Derby County and Bristol City respectively.
Sheffield United’s 1-0 win at Millwall on Wednesday sent them top but focus inside the Leeds squad will be on themselves and Saturday’s trip to Preston North End. Farke will be keen to put an end to questions over his side’s form away from home and as preparations continue ahead of that trip across the Pennines, the YEP has rounded up some of the latest stories surrounding the club.
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Championship title winner Jobi McAnuff believes Chris Wilder is trying to ‘deflect pressure’ away from his Sheffield United side with recent comments about Leeds. Wilder has regularly heaped praise on his Yorkshire rivals and following last weekend’s 0-0 draw at West Brom, he insisted the Whites were ‘miles ahead’ of his side.
The Sheffield United boss spoke highly of Leeds and Farke ahead of October’s meeting and after losing 2-0 without registering a single shot on target, he insisted the Whites were ‘head and shoulders’ above anything they’d faced beforehand. But McAnuff, who understands the psychology of a promotion race having won the title with Reading in 2011/12, is having none of it.
“No, I wouldn’t say that at all,” McAnuff told Sky Sports. “It’s good management in just trying to deflect a bit of that pressure and that heat. In terms of squad wise, they are the two strongest for me. I’d certainly say those are the two for me. With Leeds and the options they have got, particularly in those forward areas, they are certainly going to be a team that is there at the end of the season.”
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Middlesbrough midfielder Hayden Hackney is not ruling his side out of the Championship promotion race, despite falling 10 points behind Leeds following Tuesday’s defeat. Michael Carrick’s side did give Leeds their toughest test of the season and Farke admitted after full-time that he expects the midweek visitors to be right up there come May.
“In the last two, I think we have shown we can compete with the highest teams," Hackney told the Northern Echo. "Although the result hasn’t gone for us today, you can still look at it and think if we put our chances away in the second half it could have been a different game.
"It’s now a big gap to the top two, but there are loads of games left and we just have to focus on the next game, and try and win as many games as possible. We’ll see where we finish at the end. We’ll go away from here, take the positives, have a look and see what we can do better and then go again on Saturday.”