Former Leeds United goalkeeper Nigel Martyn has been looking ahead to the 2019/20 campaign where we will undoubtedly be hoping to have a second stab at promotion to the Premier League.
Having come so close in manager Marcelo Bielsa’s first season in charge at Elland Road in 2018/19, we all know where we’d like to see him and Victor Orta strengthen the first team this year and I think most would expect next season we’ll certainly have far more luck on an injury front as the often spoken about ‘burnout’ didn’t happen, we just weren’t clinical enough in games given the sheer amount of chances we created and it had long been our Achilles heel.
Speaking to the Yorkshire Evening Post our former stopper was full of praise for Bielsa being a ‘breath of fresh air’ at the club, but he also knew that we had to be aiming as minimum for the Play-Off spots again.
“Having been in the playoffs, you’ve got to be aiming for that again really. Leeds is a big club and with the fanbase it’s got, it deserves to be in the Premier League, but you’ve got to earn that right. They had a good campaign – with the squad they had at the start of the season, they batted above their average. The manager is a breath of fresh air. He brings humility to the players and has got them playing a good standard of football.”
Martyn also rightly pointed out that we probably needed an additional option up front to help out Patrick Bamford and Kemar Roofe, but there’s plenty of reasons for confidence that we can go one step better next season given how we actually played.
We just need to put the ball in the back of the net more often, but that’s always easier said than done.