‘Not good for the team’ – Christiansen details biggest negative from Leeds friendly defeat

By Danny Wright

Thomas Christiansen has made it clear that he is expecting an improved performance from his Leeds squad as they face Borussia Monchengladbach in a friendly on Thursday.

The Whites lost 3-0 in behind-closed-doors friendly to Turkish outfit Busraspor in Italy on Monday, and the Danish manager is hoping for a better outing against the Bundesliga outfit.

Ahead of the clash against Monchengladbach, Christiansen has suggested that the biggest negative of the friendly defeat earlier this week was the second half display and is adamant that he isn’t too concerned about the result against the Germans.

“It’s still early. We have more games to play and on Monday we played against a very good opponent,” said the Leeds manager, as quoted by the Yorkshire Evening Post.

“The result is not the most important thing and that’s also true when we win (friendlies). The performance of the team is important, to see the good things and the bad things, and I believe we had two types in that game.

“The first was okay but the second, the were big gaps between the lines and that was not good for the team, but the result didn’t reflect what we saw. Of course they were a good team from the first division in Turkey but I saw what I wanted to see in the game.”

Leeds have been very active in the summer transfer window so far, with Matthew Pennington becoming their latest arrival on Wednesday when he signed from Everton on a season-long loan.

The 22-year-old defender could make his unofficial debut for United against Monchengladbach, who finished ninth in the Bundesliga

The Yorkshire Evening post reports that Mateusz Klich might still be out for the tie as he resumes light training after pulling a muscle earlier on in the pre-season.

Leeds’ clash on Thursday will be their fifth friendly of the summer, having already beaten Harrogate Town, Guiseley and North Ferriby United prior to their trip to Austria.

In other Leeds news, the Whites’ latest signing has issued a message to the supporters after agreeing his transfer.

We’ve launched a << BREAKING NEWS FEED>> exclusively for your club. ‘Like Us’ on Facebook by clicking here if you want 24/7 updates on all Leeds breaking news.