Leeds United should receive natural boost for second season in Premier League - David Prutton

The football season is back with fans in full stands and covering the EFL games this past weekend has been amazing.
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It made it a spectacle and the occasion that we have all known and loved for all of our lives.

It was just great to see that up close and personal, to hear the noises, see the sights, smell the smells and just have a proper match day experience which you could immerse yourself in and lose yourself in watching a game.

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We cover the games for Sky Sports and you do it from our point of view of being in depth and working with the people that are giving you their opinion of it all.

A TRUE TEST: Leeds United celebrate a fine strike from Mateusz Klich, second from right, in Saturday's 2-2 draw against Europa League champions Villarreal in the final friendly of the summer. Picture by Varleys.A TRUE TEST: Leeds United celebrate a fine strike from Mateusz Klich, second from right, in Saturday's 2-2 draw against Europa League champions Villarreal in the final friendly of the summer. Picture by Varleys.
A TRUE TEST: Leeds United celebrate a fine strike from Mateusz Klich, second from right, in Saturday's 2-2 draw against Europa League champions Villarreal in the final friendly of the summer. Picture by Varleys.

But the great thing is that when you are at a game and you are impartial you can sit there and watch it as a fan of the game rather than of either team and just enjoy it for what it is.

The natural roar of encouragement, the cheer of a goal, the pantomime booing of the opposition and the songs and chants, it was all there and it all felt brand new but so wonderfully part of the fabric that we all love.

Leeds United will get their first taste of having their fans back in full at next weekend’s clash at Manchester United, followed by the Elland Road fixture against Everton the following weekend.

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I’m not being positive just for the sake of being positive but I would like to think that the return of fans in full would be to their benefit.

I remember playing at Elland Road back in the Premier League for Southampton and it was packed.

It was the same when I watched games there as a kid on the odd occasion that I went across to Elland Road.

The things that you remember are the real primal things, the sheer volume of noise and the size of the crowd and just the passion that was flowing out of the terraces.

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That should be a mouth watering proposition for the current crop of Leeds United players because they are playing for the club when the Whites are the best they have been for a very long time.

These are golden times for those types of players.

This is an era where you have got fantastic players, a good team ethic, a great manager in Marcelo Bielsa, international footballers in the ranks and a team that is back playing against the big boys that they can genuinely call their rivals.

There are Yorkshire derbies scattered around and big matches in the Championship and also when they were in League One.

But with the greatest respect, these are their proper rivals – Manchester United, Liverpool, people like that who they can’t wait to play against.

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I just think this season will be a reward for what the fans have had to deal with and I don’t just mean over the last 18 months with the restrictions due to Covid but the last 16 years that they have waited to get back to the top table.

Now they are able to get back there and see it and see Elland Road in all its glory. The pitch will look magnificent, the stands which are steeped in history will be noisy and full of colour and

I would like to think from what I have seen of Leeds United crowds that the bigger the better to be honest.

Leeds signed off from their pre-season friendlies with Saturday’s 2-2 draw against Villarreal and the great thing with friendlies is that you can look at them in two ways.

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If you play well and win all of your games in the pre-season then it’s good preparation.

If you are not quite up to it from a results point of view in pre-season then you would sweep it under the carpet and say it’s not the real deal.

Somewhere in the middle is probably the reality.

Leeds have played some very good teams in Villarreal, Ajax and Real Betis this summer and they have done the right thing to play sides of that nature.

You do build your way up after playing some more local teams but you could mess around doing that all summer and just have a tickle before the start of the season. But Marcelo Bielsa doesn’t work like that.

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He is top level and top level footballers don’t work like that either.

I always felt in pre-season that you were building up to hit the ground running in that first game.

But no matter how fit you are in pre-season and no matter what games you have had, I always felt that 20 minutes into that first game back you would still be looking for your second wind.

The adrenaline is pumping, the excitement is coursing through your veins and of course a packed out crowd will only add to that.

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These games will have given Marcelo some serious things to think about, some places to work on and just redefined and refocused the effort and input that he puts into the team ahead of the opening game of the season.

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Thank you Laura Collins