The Athletic’s Phil Hay has been discussing Leeds United’s Ian Poveda after the 20-year-old made his first appearance in the Championship during last weekend’s defeat at Cardiff City.
The youngster joined Leeds United from Manchester City in January on a free transfer but hadn’t appeared for Marcelo Bielsa’s side prior to Sunday. Poveda came on to replace Helder Costa on 77 minutes and according to WhoScored.com, his brief appearance earned him a rating of 6.03/10.
Appearing on the Talking Shutt podcast, Hay was asked why the young winger had to wait so long to be given his first opportunity at Leeds, to which he responded: “It’s the usual thing with Bielsa, he just didn’t seem to be ticking enough of the boxes to get into the team and you can see that on the basis that he wasn’t injured and he had been in the squad and then was suddenly out of the squad.
“He was somebody who, last week, people at Leeds were talking about as having had a good pre-season, if you want to call it that. There are a lot of people who think a lot of Poveda – particularly the guys who worked with him at Brentford when he came back there after his spell at Barcelona. But going way back to when he was at Chelsea and Arsenal as a really young kid, they all say he’s got bundles and bundles of talent. I thought you could see little bits of it on Sunday when he came on. I did think that kind of shone through.”
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TIF Thoughts…
Judging by Hay’s comments, the noises coming out of Thorp Arch suggest that the player has impressed those at the club since the return to training following the lockdown. That, plus the fact he was introduced at the weekend, could be a sign he is beginning to make an impression on Bielsa.
The Whites will be looking to get back to winning ways at the weekend when they take on third-placed Fulham in a crucial fixture at Elland Road. It will be interesting to see whether or not Poveda features for a second week running.