Leeds United come up against Wayne Rooney’s Plymouth Argyle in their next Championship fixture.
For the first time in over a month, Daniel Farke has a full week on the training pitch with his players in preparation for the match, which should hopefully bode well.
The two sides have had very contrasting starts to the season, with Leeds currently sat third in the Championship and Plymouth just one place outside of the bottom three.
Argyle will be without Leeds loanee Darko Gyabi due to him being ineligible to face his parent club, and if they are to come out on top, must arrest a worrying run of away form.
Rooney‘s side have picked up just one point from six matches on their travels and in that time, have conceded 13 goals.
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Leeds can pile misery on Rooney at Elland Road
Saturday’s meeting will be just the second time Rooney has come up against Leeds as a manager, having also done so with Birmingham City on New Year’s Day earlier this year.
Leeds defeated the Blues 3-0 at Elland Road in what proved to be the final game of a dismal stint in charge, with Rooney sacked just hours later.
In fact, Rooney’s recent record against Leeds in any capacity has been miserable. Back in 2010, Rooney was part of the Manchester United side embarrassed by League One Leeds at Old Trafford in the FA Cup.
His final encounter against Leeds as a player then came during his brief spell with Derby County, where he and the rest of his teammates were forced to give the whole of Marcelo Bielsa’s squad a guard of honour at Pride Park after winning promotion just days earlier.
Despite the majority of the starting XI that day nursing a heavy hangover, Leeds ran out comfortable 3-1 winners thanks to goals from Pablo Hernandez, Jamie Shackleton and Matt Clarke (OG).
If Plymouth show no signs of improving their dreadful recent defensive record, then another hefty defeat could be on the cards for Rooney at the hands of Leeds.
Rooney’s anger at Plymouth ahead of Leeds meeting
Rooney’s Plymouth were involved in a real enthralling encounter against former Leeds boss Paul Heckingbottom’s Preston North End on Saturday.
With Leeds loanee Sam Greenwood among those on the scoresheet, PNE were leading 3-0 in the second half and looked on course for a comfortable three points.
However, Argyle were somehow able to comeback and earn a draw, though Rooney was still extremely angry at his side post-match.
He said: “I’m angry, to be honest. That performance is nowhere near good enough. I was really disappointed for an hour of that game.
“It didn’t look like us at all. We were easy to play against. We weren’t putting tackles in, we weren’t getting to the ball. I’m obviously pleased we get a point out of the game but I can’t accept that performance.
“I’m frustrated. At 3-0, you are looking at it and you are concerned. I tried to get attacking players on and get more balls in the box. We didn’t do that enough, which is something we have worked on and looked at over the last couple of days, and we didn’t do that at all for an hour. Really pleased to get a point at the end but the performance was nowhere near good enough.
“We have to keep working. There has been games this season where we have been really good. The last three we have hit a little bit of a blip so we need to snap out of it because today could have been a lot worse.”
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