Mark Robins declares verdict on Leeds United transfer business with key man praise and 'unlucky' Whites view
Coventry boss Mark Robins has had his say on Leeds United ahead of Saturday’s clash at Elland Road.
Coventry City boss Mark Robins has saluted Leeds United transfer business and a key Whites figure with an 'unlucky' Whites view.
Robins will take his Coventry side to Elland Road this weekend for Saturday afternoon’s 3pm kick-off which will mark a third Championship clash between Robins as Sky Blues boss against opposite Leeds number Daniel Farke.
Coventry took four points from Leeds last season through a 2-1 victory at the CBS Arena on the back of a 1-1 draw in West Yorkshire but Robins is calling for a better Sky Blues display than the one he saw in December’s stalemate at Elland Road.
The Sky Blues took their point from Leeds amid a bumpy patch of results for Daniel Farke’s Whites who then went on a storming run from the new year only to miss out on automatic promotion despite amassing 90 points as defeat in the play-off final to Southampton followed.
Speaking at his pre-match press conference, Robins declared his belief that Leeds were unlucky not to seal promotion, akin to his side’s fortunes in the 2022-23 campaign in which they were beaten in the play-off final on penalties by Luton Town.
Leeds have since lost the services of star men Crysencio Summerville, Archie Gray and Georginio Rutter but Robins believes the Whites have done “pretty well” in replacing the big name exits and his saluted the work of Whites boss Farke.
Speaking ahead of Saturday’s clash at Elland Road and as quoted by the club’s official website, Robins said of Leeds: “They’ve got a lot of good players, even though they’ve sold some for lots of money, they’ve replaced them pretty well.
"They’re managed really well, and Daniel Farke has done an incredible job and was really unlucky last season, as we were the season before not to go up and they will be looking to do that this season.
"The pressure is different at Leeds United compared to what it is at Coventry City, although we want the same end goal, I think the demands are greater for Daniel than they are for me here.
"It is an interesting game and one we’re looking forward to and hopefully we can contest it in a better way than we did last season, even though it was a draw last year, we didn’t really take part in the game from an attacking point of view. We want to try and pick up the three points at a difficult place to go.”
Robins added: “They’ve got really good players there’s no doubt. They’re on the front foot and they want to press and the spaces they take up are really intelligent and they have intelligent players.
"They’ve lost a number of players, but they still have a lot of talent there and they look a threat.
"We will have to be at our best again, but I want us to take part in the game properly if we can do and that is something we will be looking to do.
"When we have possession of the ball, we want to make better use of it than what we did last season.”