Leeds United gifted survival bid relief as part of ideal period for Whites - David Prutton

Leeds United are in the middle of a 15-day gap between games but with everyone building as we are not talking about an international break here.
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That’s exactly what you would want as a manager and it’s akin to having a bit of a mini pre-season although not in the of sense of thrashing the players to bits.

But Whites boss Jesse Marsch has been given time by this break to look and see what he has got and how he is going to go about navigating the rest of the season to make sure that everybody is happy and healthy and surviving in the Premier League come the start of next season.

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Given the workload that Leeds have been placed with for such a long period of time, I would like to think the break has been pretty ideal as it also possibly provides a chance to heal injuries and navigate some of the lads back to full fitness.

OPPORTUNITY: For Leeds United's England international midfielder Kalvin Phillips, above, to get closer to 100 per cent match fitness during the current Whites break. Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images.OPPORTUNITY: For Leeds United's England international midfielder Kalvin Phillips, above, to get closer to 100 per cent match fitness during the current Whites break. Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images.
OPPORTUNITY: For Leeds United's England international midfielder Kalvin Phillips, above, to get closer to 100 per cent match fitness during the current Whites break. Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images.

Given all of that, it has got to be seen as a positive.

The win at Watford for Leeds was massive, putting them on to 33 points and you would think that would be enough to stay up given the form of other clubs in and around them.

Who knows who Burnley are going to bring in after sacking Sean Dyche and that could be a big factor in what happens between now and the end of the season.

But everyone connected with Leeds will be happy if it turns out that Jesse has managed to get the results that he needed to get to keep Leeds in the Premier League but there will always be that element of emotion when it comes to Marcelo Bielsa moving on.

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I think Leeds will be all right and my gut feeling tells me they will be all right but you can’t think it is all done and dusted until it’s mathematically impossible to go down because, otherwise, it will bite you on the bum.

With regards to Burnley sacking Dyche, Brentford boss Thomas Frank said they should build a statue outside Burnley for Dychey. Part of me thought, ‘what?!’.

But Dychey was there for 10 years and he turned them into a main feature of the Premier League.

In the season that they went down they bounced straight back up again and there was no messing around and no 16-year wait.

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Obviously, financially they had been on a much sounder footing but I was staggered that they decided to sack him.

If somebody comes and saves them then it will be a justified decision by Premier League survival and nobody is irreplaceable or untouchable.

But he got Burnley mixing it with the big boys over a consistent period of time which was nothing short of phenomenal.

The couple of times I have come across him, quite obviously he is a very bullish character.

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He will be licking his wounds and he will be hurting but I will be very intrigued to see where he goes next.

But, when you look at it from a Leeds point of view and what their rivals are doing, I bet you would be thinking ‘hallelujah’, brilliant in the nicest possible sense.

They were the main ones who knew how to get out of that dogfight but they are hamstringing themselves by getting rid of the man who knows how to do it.

There is a wariness that comes with a Burnley and with a Sean Dyche but that has now been somewhat kiboshed by them saying ‘cheers’ and ‘see you later’ in one of the more ruthless decisions that we have seen.

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Watford and Norwich both lost again on Saturday and it’s looking grim for them but they are not down until it’s mathematically done.

But I can’t see it being one of those scenarios where we have like a survival Sunday and it feels like, by the time we get to the final day, there might already be some stuff done and dusted with teams already down.

From a Leeds point of view, as long as it is not them then happy days.

Leeds will finally be back in action a week tonight at Crystal Palace and that game is followed by home clashes against Manchester City and Chelsea either side of Arsenal away.

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But Leeds should go into those games with a lot of confidence after the recent haul of 10 points from a possible 12.

If they were going into these next four games without getting those points then you would be very worried for them because of who they are coming up against.

I think even the most ardent Leeds fan would have looked at anything out of these next four games as a bonus rather than something to rely on and I don’t think anything has changed there.

But what has changed is the lead-up into these games.

I hate and hesitate to use the word ‘comfort’ because there is absolutely no comfort in where they are because they are not safe yet.

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But they have given themselves one hell of a chance with the recent run of results.

Leeds got points this time last season against the really big hitters, albeit there was a different set of circumstances and approach to that but they definitely don’t have to sell themselves short even though anything that comes of it is a bonus.

But you might have a Man City side licking its wounds and you might have a Chelsea side that we know has thrown up a couple of anomalous results in the last couple of months.

It remains to be see but it’s marginally rosier because of what they have done in the lead-up to it than it possibly could have been if they were chasing their tail somewhat.