Pascal Struijk in Leeds United captaincy admission with autos points target and Ipswich reminder

Struijk admits he was nervous upon first being handed the captain’s armband for January’s FA Cup clash away at Cardiff City for which club skipper Liam Cooper was missing and Luke Ayling on the bench. Ayling has generally captained Leeds in Cooper’s absence but both players have had to contend with places on Daniel Farke’s bench of late, meaning the need for a new armband wearer on the pitch.

Centre-back Struijk has been entrusted with that role, the 24-year-old having now captained Leeds in 10 of the club’s last 12 games, Cooper taking back over the mantle for the fixtures against Rotherham United and Plymouth Argyle which followed Struijk’s hernia surgery.

Struijk has since returned to lead out the Whites in their last five games, the centre-back opening up on how he is now growing into the role and skippering the side in a way best suited to his traits.

"I would say in the beginning I was always a little bit nervous," Struijk told LUTV, asked about captaining the side. "I remember getting it the first time and I was a little bit nervous about I need to speak more, I need to really show that I am out there.

"But that's not really the guy that I am, especially in the changing room, so I do it on the pitch and I do all my speaking and stuff on the pitch because it is just more natural to me whereas in the changing room I might be a little more quiet than the rest because we have other people doing this stuff that speak in the changing room.

"But also in the difficult moments I am trying to improve myself, making sure I am a loud voice on the pitch and also keeping positive when we are in...I wouldn't say rough patch but when we have conceded a goal or something like this."

The concession of just one goal in last weekend’s hosting of Coventry City ultimately cost Leeds two points and left Daniel Farke’s third-placed side ten points adrift of the division’s second automatic promotion spot occupied by Saturday’s visitors Ipswich Town.

Struijk says both Ipswich and leaders Leicester City deserve rich praise for the record-breaking pace they have been setting but the defender has issued a reminder about a Championship “marathon not sprint”. Leeds have amassed 42 points from their first 22 games – a haul of 1.9 per match – but Struijk is optimistic his side can better that in the second half of the campaign en route to taking their place in the top two.

Sizing up Saturday’s lunchtime showdown against Ipswich, Struijk said: "It's a really, really exciting game. They have done really well to be in the position they are in now and the same of course for Leicester. But the season is still really long, we still have 20-something games to go. It's a marathon, not a sprint so hopefully we can just take all the points we have been taking and even a little bit more in the second half of the season and then hopefully we will come out on top.”

Struijk added: “For us, it's just most important that we focus on ourselves. We have been doing well, they have been doing exceptionally well. "Where we are with the points at the moment, you would say last season we would be in top two or number one so they have done really well. But if we can keep up this momentum and just the way that we are going and hopefully pick up a little bit more points than we did in the first half of the season then hopefully they will drop a few and then we will gain a few."