Leeds United star's blunt Championship promotion message after Sheffield United and Sunderland 'advantage'
Leeds United will hope to open up a gap on their Championship promotion rivals this weekend.
Jayden Bogle insists focus inside the Leeds United squad is on their own performances, rather than the results of those around them.
Leeds are the last of this season’s four automatic promotion favourites to play this weekend, with Sheffield Wednesday due at Elland Road on Sunday. Daniel Farke’s side currently top the Championship but could be second come kick-off, with Sheffield United a point shy and hosting Norwich City on Saturday.
A spot in the top-two come end of play is virtually guaranteed, however, following Burnley’s 0-0 draw at home to Sunderland on Friday night. But Bogle and his teammates are not losing any sleep over their rivals or the EFL’s scheduling decisions.
“It's been nice to have a full week to build up to a game and get extra preparation,” Bogle told LUTV. “We’re looking forward to it. In the period we had it was game, recover, game so when it's like that you get into a mindset of getting the body ready to go again. Now you get a full week so you know you've got time to prepare for the game.”
Asked if those earlier kick-offs can give others an advantage, the right-back added: “We just try to get on with it. There's always times when certain teams play before or after each other, we just take it game by game, focus on doing what we need to do during the week and then taking that into the game.
“We just try to focus on ourselves. When we’re training, we work hard and demand a lot from each other. When it comes to gameday everyone is focused, using the preparations we've done during the week to put into games.”
Bogle will hope he can add to an impressive goalscoring tally on Sunday, with the right-back already on three for the season with two assists to boot. All of those three goals have come in front of the Elland Road crowd, with the £5million summer arrival thriving as part of a dominant and attacking team.
“We have that freedom, especially when we’ve got the ball, to be creative in the final third and impact games with goals and assists, that’s a real positive,” Bogle explained. “Then defensively being solid at the back and aiming to keep as many clean sheets as possible.”
Leeds were excellent during their 2-0 win at Sheffield Wednesday in August, with goals from Brenden Aaronson and Dan James ensuring all three points headed back to West Yorkshire. But the Owls are much improved from those early weeks and Bogle knows how much can change between those two league meetings.
“I’m sure they'll be preparing for us, I think the most important thing is to focus on ourselves and use this week to focus come gameday make sure we're at it,” the Whites defender added. “It was a while ago now, a lot changes very quickly in the Championship so we just have to prepare the best we can and then attack the game.”