I took Leeds United to the Champions League semi-finals - their Premier League return would be great
Leeds United can take a huge step towards Championship promotion at Bramall Lane this evening.
Former Leeds United manager David O’Leary believes promotion is on the cards for Daniel Farke’s side so long as they can ‘finish’ the job in their final 13 games.
Leeds are well-placed to secure their Premier League return at the second time of asking, with last week’s dramatic 2-1 comeback win at home to Sunderland sending them back to the top of the Championship. Pascal Struijk’s late double extended their unbeaten league run to 15 games, with a trip to Sheffield United next up this evening.
That Yorkshire derby is the toughest of Leeds’ 13 remaining games on paper, with none of the top four to play in their final dozen, but while stopping Farke’s side currently looks close to impossible, things can change quickly. The Whites were top of the Championship going into the March international break last season and on a similar run before slipping up.
Leicester City and Ipswich Town eventually climbed above Leeds, who finished the regular campaign with a whimper before play-off final defeat against Southampton consigned them to another year of second-tier football. Things look different this time but while former boss O’Leary is happy to see them ‘flying’, he warned against a repeat of last season’s dismal finish.
“Leeds are flying,” O’Leary told talkSPORT. “I think they'd be great for the Premier League. Big game tonight, but what they've got to do - something they couldn’t do last year - they’ve got to finish it off.
“They're in a great position and I think they’ll want to come up automatically. I don’t think they’ll want to get involved in the play-offs because last year they were very poor in the final and Southampton deserved to beat them.”
Leeds have been tipped by many as promotion favourites all season, with their chances of a top-two finish increasing with every week. Watford manager Tom Cleverley likened them to a mid-table Premier League team following his side’s 4-0 home defeat, while Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder admitted he expects his Yorkshire rivals to go up automatically.
Victory against Wilder’s Blades tonight would go a long way to making that a reality, with three points sending them five clear of second place and seven ahead of Burnley in third. There will still be 12 games and 36 points to play for but such a gap will offer the chasing pack almost no room for error.
Speaking after last week’s dramatic 2-1 comeback win over Sunderland, Farke gave a first hint of the points total he is aiming for by suggesting 20 more should do the trick. That would take his side to 92 points overall, an improvement on last season’s 90-point tally.
“Yes, there’s a gap and that’s definitely, definitely good,” he said in the aftermath of last week’s win. “But sadly there are more than just four or five games to go. Sadly, we have still many, many games to go. If we were to stop right now on 72 points, we would perhaps make it into the top six, but it’s not guaranteed. Hopefully we won’t lose all the last 13 games, so I think it’s a major step.
“But we have to definitely reach the play-offs and in order to be there in the top two with automatic promotion, yeah, we need to win 20 more points, and for that, it’s a long road. Each and every game is complicated. You saw that against Sunderland, difficult away games, challenging home games and for that we have to maintain the momentum to keep it going. So nothing is won yet. On 72 points, we will never be in the top two so we have to win many more points and we want to keep going.”