I have to admit, perhaps I was a little bit too hasty in passing judgement on him.
I have previously said of Jack Harrison that I needed to see more of him than just a ‘solid work-rate’, and that wanted to see more goals and assists from him before I could start judging whether or not he’d made an improvement from what we managed to see from him last year.
And since I wrote that article, it’s fair to say that he really has managed to step up and take charge, in particular this recent stretch of games, where he has managed to be involved in seven goals (scoring three and assisting four) in the space of eight games. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised to see him get a nomination for the player of the month off the back of these displays.
I suppose really the question is, can he keep this up for the rest of the campaign?
Is this merely a ‘flash in the pan’ as it were, and that he’s going to fall back to a stage where we’re going to be questioning his worth to the team once again? Or do we think that the ball has finally dropped for him and he’ll be able to string this run of performances out for the rest of the season?
And if he does manage to keep up those performances, what kind of impact is that going to have on the club come next summer? It’s always worth noting in situations like this, that he is only with Leeds on loan this season, so we don’t 100% control his future.
It’s a similar situation to the situation the club find themselves in with Kalvin Phillips, in that whether or not they’ll be able to keep him will be heavily dictated by what division the club finds themselves in.
Is Harrison Worth £20million Now?
Of Anyone's Money
No Chance
That’s why we need him to keep these performances up, rather than this be a little bit of a ‘spurt’ that pops up every now and again. Because if he can’t keep this up, then Leeds are in danger of not going up, and then his displays might catch the eyes of other clubs, leaving United going back to square one when it comes to their promotion challenge.