Leeds United man's honest game-time admission as five-word warning sent to starting teammate
Minutes have been hard to come by for the returning Leeds United defender.
Max Wober is having to ‘remain patient’ in search of regular Leeds United minutes but will be waiting in the wings when his opportunity does come.
Wober returned to Leeds in the summer having spent last season on loan at Borussia Monchengladbach, but that comeback has been broken up by fitness issues. A knee injury saw the defender in and out of the squad early doors before developing into an issue serious enough to require surgery during the September international break.
Even when fit, minutes have been hard to come by for the 26-year-old, whose only start came in a miserable 3-0 Carabao Cup defeat at home to Middlesbrough in August. Wober has the rather unenviable task of competing for football with one of Leeds’ best-performing teammates in Pascal Struijk and can only accept that the vice-captain is deserving of his starting place.
“Things are going well in Leeds, I understand from the coach that there is no reason to change anything,” Wober told Austrian newspaper Kurier (via Sport Witness). “I have to remain patient.”
Struijk’s absence during the second-half of last season is looking more decisive with each passing week. The Dutchman has been imperious at the back and formed a partnership with Joe Rodon that has kept nine clean sheets in 15 league games, conceding less than one expected goal in all of the last six.
Add to that the fact Struijk is currently wearing the armband in Ethan Ampadu’s absence, and the chance of regular starts is looking slim for Wober. But he is still hoping to make that spot his own when the chance does come. Asked whether those minutes will come via directly replacing Struijk at left centre-back, the defender added: “That would be the goal.”
International reprieve
Wober is yet to fully return from that knee surgery, having been an unused substitute in Leeds’ last three games against Plymouth Argyle, Millwall and Queens Park Rangers. But the defender has joined up with his Austria teammates for the November international break and is expected to feature in UEFA Nations League meetings with Kazakhstan and Slovenia.
The centre-back already has more international minutes than at club-level this season and that gap will almost certainly increase over the next fortnight. Leeds will surely have preferred to have their defender at Thorp Arch to continue slowly building fitness but can now only hope he returns unscathed.
“Max started training again at Leeds a week ago,” Austria national team coach Ralf Rangnick told Kronen Zeitung last week (via Sport Witness). “We don’t have many options in his position.”
Wober will at least be one of the first to return from international duty, with Austria at Kazakhstan on Thursday before hosting Slovenia on Sunday evening. He will be followed by the likes of Junior Firpo, Ao Tanaka, Brenden Aaronson, Joe Rodon and Dan James in playing over the next fortnight, with Leeds’ next game at Swansea City a week on Sunday.