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We all kind of knew this already, but injuries played an extremely significant part of last season at Leeds.
Injuries plagued Leeds' first season under Marcelo Bielsa and took its toll on our attacking department. Of Leeds' total Championship + play-off game time, Kemar Roofe played 58.1%, Tyler Roberts 43.2% and Patrick Bamford just 33.6%. #LUFC
— LUFCDATA (@LUFCDATA) June 4, 2019
If you don’t already follow Chris Taylor (aka @LUFCDATA) you really should, because he tweets out a ton of great statistics about Leeds, the players, etc. And this tweet about the amount of time that the three main striker options at Leeds spent injured kind of put everything in black and white.
Patrick Bamford wasn’t injured for only 33.6% of the season at Leeds, Tyler Roberts 43.2%, and Kemar Roofe 58.1%. And yes, while Bamford took a lot of deserved stick for the dive against Aston Villa and his abject performance against Derby County in the second leg of the playoff loss, imagine if he had been just a little more fit this past season and scored just a few more goals. A couple draws turned wins would have resulted in Leeds not needing to go through any playoff nonsense.
Here’s hoping that everyone has better fitness next season.
On to the links.
Leeds United Links
Stability has made Leeds an attractive investment opportunity. [Yorkshire Evening Post]
England and English Football Links
The Championship is a financial bubble waiting to burst. [What A Howler]
Phil Jagielka is set to leave Everton after 12 years. [Royal Blue Mersey]
Everything seems all set for Friday’s deadline to get a buyer for Bolton Wanderers. [The Bolton News]
England U20s lost to Portugal U19s at the Maurice Revello Tournament. [The FA]
World Football Links
Despite reports saying he’d committed his future to Fiorentina, Federico Chiesa said he hasn’t made any decision about his future. [Viola Nation]
Despite some good individual performances, AS Roma’s defence regressed in 2018/19. [Chiesa di Totti]
Defender Rodrigo Becao is reportedly set for a transfer from CSKA Moscow to Udinese. [Football-Italia.net]
Napoli and Inter Milan are reportedly competing for the signature of Manchester United forward Romelu Lukaku. [Football-Italia.net]