Daniel Farke may have to start calling on some of his talented youngsters if his Leeds United injury crisis deepens any further.
While Leeds do have arguably the strongest group of players in the league, it would be fair to say they aren’t blessed with much depth.
Ethan Ampadu, Manor Solomon, Max Wober, Dan James and Isaac Schmidt all missed Leeds’ 1-1 draw at Norwich City, which ultimately led to an extremely weak bench.
In fact, Daniel Farke’s inability to replace players like-for-like effectively killed Leeds‘ momentum in the game, and his woes were only added to by Ilia Gruev.
Gruev was forced to limp off inside 20 minutes at Carrow Road and Leeds face an anxious wait to discover the length of time he will spend on the sidelines.
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Graham Smyth says Leeds teen Charlie Crew will be ‘rubbing his hands’
Gruev’s injury could not have come at a worse possible time considering just a matter of days earlier, Ampadu was ruled out for 10 weeks.
Similarly to Ampadu, Gruev underwent on-field treatment for a knee problem and after attempting to carry on, simply wasn’t able to. As such, it would not be a surprise if he faces a lengthy lay-off.
That leaves Ao Tanaka and Joe Rothwell as Leeds’ only fit senior midfielders, but speaking on the latest episode of the Inside Elland Road Podcast, journalist Graham Smyth put forward the case of Charlie Crew.
Farke is of the belief Crew has huge potential at Leeds but is still yet to hand him a senior debut, despite being on the bench several times.
But after the events involving Ampadu and Gruev this week, Smyth believes Crew will now be ‘rubbing his hands’ together at the chance of some minutes over the coming matches.
He said: “You would have to say you’d very doubtful [of Gruev playing] for Friday at this stage. It was bad enough for him to stop playing after 20 minutes and you just hope it’s the kind of injury that they can just manage him back into training and it’s just after the international break he’s ready to go.
“Knees are a tricky and worrying business, particularly at Leeds United this season again, so fingers crossed… If you are Charlie Crew you are probably rubbing your hands thinking, come on, minutes, here we go.
“But it’s a big concern and I wrote last week that your transfer window work, you can grade it how you please when it closes, but it’s constantly being remarked and the marking scheme changes constantly based on the circumstances that are thrown.”
Farke keen to avoid Crew and Archie Gray comparison at Leeds
Farke was actually once again asked about Crew getting a chance in his press conference on Wednesday, and it would be fair to say he urged caution.
With Crew at a similar age to Archie Gray when he broke through, Farke was keen to get the point across that not every youngster can be ready from such a young age like Gray.
He said: “Charlie is a young player who came to us at 17. There are many comparisons to a 17-year-old Archie Gray, this is not fair because the last thing young lads need is too much weight on their shoulders.
“To play as a 17 or 18-year-old guy regularly in first-team football for such a big club with such ambition to go back into the Premier League, it’s not normal that a 17, 18-year-old guy is always in the starting-XI, or has major minutes.
“This happens once in 10 years so it would be unfair to expect him to do the same as Archie. Charlie is a great character, always open and wanting to learn. We try to work a lot with him to improve him but we can just bring him closer to the door – the step through the door is up to him and he has the chance to shine.
“He’s totally down to earth, well educated, really humble, a good guy and a good football player but there is a step between youth football and senior football.
“For some it takes a bit longer to make the breakthrough. He is on a good path, involved at 18 for a few months. It says a lot about his potential but when there’s time to unleash him, we will.
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