Leeds U21s: Gelhardt failed his big chance

Leeds United U21s went into Tuesday night’s Papa John’s Trophy conflict realizing {that a} win over Crewe Alexandra would see them qualify for the knockout levels of the competitors.

Nonetheless, regardless of dominating everything of the sport – boasting an unbelievable 75% possession, taking 16 pictures to Crewe’s two, and finishing almost 400 extra passes than the hosts – Michael Skubala’s aspect couldn’t make the breakthrough.

Certainly, Sonny Perkins, Darko Gyabi, Junior Firpo and Mateo Joseph all noticed their efforts saved by a resilient Dave Richards between the house aspect’s sticks, with the sport ending 0-0 and heading to penalties.

Consistent with the theme of the match, Leeds as soon as once more didn’t make their possibilities pay from the spot, as, regardless of taking all 5 of their penalties, solely Mateusz Klich discovered the again of the online – with the League Two aspect successful 2-1.

And, whereas Skubala will undoubtedly be disillusioned to see his aspect exit the competitors, from Jesse Marsch’s perspective, the efficiency of Joe Gelhardt will doubtless have been the largest trigger for concern on the evening.

Certainly, over the course of his 62 minutes on the pitch, the £8.8m-rated expertise supplied his aspect extraordinarily little going forwards, having fun with a mere 35 touches of the ball, finishing simply 20 passes and failing to take a single shot at purpose, along with finishing simply one among his 4 tried dribbles.

The generally referred to as “wonderkid” was additionally bullied on the ball, shedding six of his ten duels – a hit price of simply 40% – whereas he additionally ceded possession on ten separate events – which means he gave the ball away with each three touches he had at The Mornflake Stadium.

These returns noticed the £16.5k-per-week ahead earn a particularly disappointing SofaScore match score of 6.4, whereas the Yorkshire Night Put up’s Joe Donnohue additionally awarded the 20-year-old a six in his personal participant rankings, in addition to stating of the England U21 worldwide’s show:

“Joe Gelhardt – Ran round lots however at all times discovered himself snuffed out within the No. 10 place.”

As such, with Wilfried Gnonto’s spectacular outing within the senior aspect’s 2-1 victory over Liverpool final weekend trying to have moved the Italy worldwide forward of Gelhardt in Marsch’s first-team pecking order, if this was the English starlet’s large likelihood to restake a declare within the senior aspect, it’s one the striker sadly failed.

Certainly, whereas each Perkins and Joseph had been additionally wasteful in entrance of purpose on Tuesday evening, Gelhardt’s show was actually essentially the most forgettable for the U21s.