How Leeds United Preseason Is Going So Far

Pre-season is well and truly underway. So far this summer United have played 3 local, lower league teams in the form of Harrogate Town, York City and Tadcaster Albion. The results haven't been the sort-of-thing to get the average fan pumped and ready for the new season.

But the performances have been solid, which, along with getting the players back up to match day fitness, is what pre-season is all about. So let's have a little look back at the games played so far and what the rest of summer has in store for

Leeds before the big kick off on 8^th August:

The first competitive match since the end of last season saw Leeds take on North Yorkshire side, Harrogate Town (no, I didn't realize Harrogate had 2 football teams either).

It was Leeds' fans first chance to see the new signing, Chris Wood, who had recently joined from Leicester City. It was also the first chance for new head coach Uwe Rosler to see his team in action.

I won't say too much about this game as there's already a recap on this very blog. But the game ended in a rather disappointing 1-1 draw. But like I said earlier, these games are all about getting the player's fitness back up to scratch, right?

On Wednesday United played not one, but two games! Rosler fielded two separate sides, both a mixture of first team and youth against York City and Tadcaster Albion. Kick off against York was delayed due to a large number of Leeds fans still trying to get into Bootham Crescent.

Once the game did finally get underway it was Leeds who took control, as you'd expect. The away side look comfortable with the ball but were unable to create many clear scoring chances. It wasn't until late on in the first half that the deadlock was broken. Sam Byram connected with a lovely cross from Mowatt to put the visitors 1-0 up.

The rest of the game carried on much in the same vein and credit to the York goalkeeper who made sure his side were only down by the one goal. If anyone was following the game through twitter you'll know that the official LUFC twitter page were on hand to keep the entertainment flowing thanks to repeatedly referring to some of the York City players as 'Player A' and 'Player B', much to the amusement of many fans.

Against the run of play York snagged an equalizer with only a few minutes remaining to be played. The goal certainly wasn't deserved. I'd put it down to a simple lack of concentration but it's things like this that Rosler will be looking to address come the start of the season.

Another alarm bell that did start ringing, this time before the game kicked off, was the "injury" to Chris Woods who was replaced by Steve Morison. This was later cleared up as as just a cautionary substitution after Woods pulled a hamstring. Nothing to worry about here.

The other game that evening sounded a lot more entertaining. The game was being played just down the road from York in Tadcaster. Leeds romped to a 3-0 win and though I couldn't watch the game I did follow it on Twitter through Albion's account. Leeds, just like in their game against York, seemed to control the game and ran out deserved winners.

I have to say what a good idea it was to have two games played in one evening. It gives the vast majority of the squad the opportunity to have a run out and get back to playing competitive football.

At the time of writing this, the Leeds United squad are flying off to Austria to continue their summer long preparation for the upcoming 2015/16 campaign. While in Austria the Whites will face German side Eintracht Frankfurt, in what I like to dub as the "Yeboah Derby".

And then it's off to the LUFC Nordic hotbed that is Norway where the team will face another Bundesliga opponent in the form of TSG 1899 Hoffenheim. Both of these games should provide Rosler and his players with a much more sturdier test than their previous opponents so far. Whether the German clubs field more of their first team over some of their youth players is still yet to be seen.

But both of these games should be a nice step up for the players and we could see a more solid idea of what Uwe Rosler has planned for the new season.