Stephen Warnock: Leeds must mentally prepare for play-offs
Former Leeds United defender Stephen Warnock has told NewBettingOffers.co.uk that he believes it is now going to be “very difficult” for Daniel Farke’s side to gain promotion this season. Warnock feels that it is looking increasingly likely that they will end up in the play-offs, a challenge which he believes his former side will have to mentally prepare for, encouraging the team to “change their mindset”.
Read more on what he had to say below.
Leeds’ poor form will make promotion a big mountain to climb
It is going to be very difficult for Leeds to get promoted this season following their poor run of form. I think they have to try and change their mindset as quickly as possible and get away from the worries of potentially being in the play-offs. They could still go up automatically, but it will be very difficult now.
They’ve been on a similar trajectory to Liverpool’s in the Premier League in that they were on a phenomenal run, being the in-form team in their respective league in 2024. For a period, they seemed invincible. Then doubts suddenly started to creep in after their draw against Watford where they would’ve been thinking, ‘where did that come from?’.
So often we’ve seen teams in the Championship make late runs to get into the play-offs and then go on to win promotion. The same thing could now happen to Leeds, where another team comes and snatches promotion away from them. Leeds have a lot of good players and if they can mentally prepare for the play-offs then not many teams will want to face them. They’ve had a lot of injuries as of late and if they can get a bit of a break and get a few players back to their best before the play-offs, then you’d hope that they can come up.
If they don’t gain promotion Leeds must let Gnonto and Summerville leave
After Premier League relegation last season, Leeds managed to keep hold of star players such as Wilfried Gnonto and Crysencio Summerville – both of whom had previously expressed their desire to leave. And if Leeds fail in their quest for promotion this season, Warnock believes that they must let several big names leave or expect “huge problems” for the club in the future.
If Leeds don’t get promoted, then they’ll have to let a few of their star players go for financial reasons. You can try and hang on to them for a year and go back up, but after that it is a no-go because keeping those players who’ll be on bigger wages can cause huge problems for the club further down the line.
Players like Wilfried Gnonto and Crysencio Summerville wanted to leave before the start of the season but made a U-turn and have really knuckled down. Summerville especially has shown his professionalism this season to fight back and win the fans over, which he has certainly done. They went about it in the right way this season, but they will want to be back at the highest level. If the right offer comes in, then I’m sure Leeds will allow them to move on if they don’t get promoted back to the Premier League.
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