Former Leeds United hero reveals crucial advice for ‘exhausted’ summer signing

The American midfielder played every minute of United’s 2-1 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers as he made his competitive debut in Leeds’ first game of the Premier League season on Saturday.

Adams is getting his first taste of English football after the former Major Soccer League star made a £20m Elland Road switch from RB Leipzig earlier this summer.

It isn’t proving a straight-forward transition, Beckford learned.

"After the game, I spoke to Tyler Adams really briefly,” Beckford told the Leeds United podcast.

“And I said to him, ‘that was your first experience of Elland Road, playing in the Premier League as a Premier League player. How do you feel?’

"He said, ‘man, that was hard. That was so hard. I'm exhausted - mentally, emotionally, physically exhausted.’

“He said the atmosphere was the only thing that was getting him through. When he felt his legs starting to go a little bit, a little bit fatigued – he said he heard that roar again, and he was reenergized.”

Against Wolves, Adams covered a whopping 12.1km on the pitch – the second highest distance covered by any Premier League player on the opening weekend.

But Beckford warns that Adams – along with the four other senior outfield signings – must work out how to rein in his efforts in order to keep going for ninety minutes.

"When you've got the crowd behind you, you've got the the energy of the fans - whether they're behind you or attacking you, supporting you or trying to belittle you - that energy, the adrenaline, it carries you to an extent, but it's learning how to deal with that adrenaline,” Beckford explained.

"A baptism of fire is Elland Road. There's not going to be any atmosphere like that this season for anybody so I would like to think that once the new guys especially have had a chance to acclimatise to the the English fan base being as crazy as passionate as well as loud as they have been in on Saturday's game, naturally, they’ll be able to control the way they use their energy a little bit more often.

"Rather than going gung-ho on every single challenge or, or closing them down as quickly as they can. Sometimes you know that you're not going to get to the defender, so you'll close them down at three-quarters pace rather than full pace – so you're preserving just a little bit of energy and that little bit of energy you save in that moment will benefit you at the back end of the game.

"That's just a matter of trial and error. You're playing, you're learning, you're understanding your body a little bit more - what you're able to take in terms of a football player and what the fans give you.”