Morning Leeds-in for 5 September 2017: Pontus Jansson has a lot to say

The biggest talking point from yesterday in Leeds United news was the interview that Pontus Jansson had with the Yorkshire Evening Post.

While it’s not a surprise that Jansson had a lot to say, what was surprising is that he admitted the team last year got a little too cute in regards to focusing on not missing out on the playoffs instead of focusing on automatic promotion. He also said that the attitude this year under Christiansen is much better, as the team is just taking each match one at a time, focusing at the task at hand instead of worrying about where they are in the standings and how many games they can lose and still qualify for the playoffs.

The other topic that he touched on was the issue of the captaincy, and he didn’t seem particularly bothered by not having the armband, saying: “Like I said to him and I can say it now, I don’t need the thing on my arm to be a captain, I can be a captain without it also. I would not change myself because I am a captain, I would play in the same way anyway. So for me it’s not so important to be honest.”

I think that fans tend to pay too much attention to who is “captain” explain liking an older player in the team for “leadership” qualities. Plenty of successful teams have really close relationships, and plenty of successful teams don’t really have close relationships. Talent and hard work usually are a better way to judge players, as it’s also a way of trashing a player on the way out of town to claim that he is “bad in the room” or “not a leader”. Anyway, on to the links.

Leeds United Links

Gaetano Berardi and Matthew Pennington returned to training today. [Yorkshire Evening Post]

Dallas Stuart played 74 minutes in Northern Ireland’s win over the Czech Republic that guarantees Northern Ireland will be in the top two of their group and they now have a shot to qualify for their first World Cup since 1986. [BBC.com]

England and English football Links

Leicester City are rumored to be interested in Bacary Sagna, as the former Manchester City and Arsenal defender is currently a free agent. [ESPNFC.com]

Alexis Sanchez posted some nonsense on Instagram that people thought was cryptic or profound. [Goal.com]

England comes from behind to beat Slovakia at Wembley. [BBC.com]

Dele Alli is now claiming that the middle finger he gave at the end of the match was not directed towards the referee, but instead towards Kyle Walker, who recently left Tottenham Hotspur for Manchester City for several dump truck loads of cash. [ESPNFC.com]

World Football Links

After the ugly loss against Costa Rica, the US Men’s National Team can still qualify for the World Cup, but it’s a lot harder than used to be. [NBC Sports.com]

Canada, like Mexico and a number of other Central American teams, will be playing a friendly against El Salvador in the United States. [MLS Soccer.com]

Defending AFCON Champions Cameroon drew against Nigeria and now cannot qualify for the World Cup. [ESPNFC.com]