Leeds United fan and YouTuber Conor McGilligan has been sharing his thoughts on Whites attacker Joe Gelhardt.
This comes after McGilligan recently uploaded a video on his Leeds-themed YouTube channel where he reflected on the Yorkshire club’s recent 4-1 defeat to Leicester City on Monday night.
Goals from Harvey Barnes, Youri Tielemans and Jamie Vardy secured all three points for Leicester at Elland Road with Stuart Dallas managing to get on the scoresheet for the home side.
On the topic of Gelhardt, who was not in Leeds’ squad for their match against Leicester, McGilligan had this to say on the player.
He said: “He’s looked brilliant so far, he’s had consecutive appearances [for Leeds U23s]. I’d have probably liked to have seen him on the bench [against Leicester]. He’s played in the U23s, so he’s played the Bielsa way, I think he’s going to be a real key person in this season for me when Leeds are down to the bare bones.
“I think someone like him on the bench [against Leicester], it would have excited a lot of Leeds fans, I think [Sam] Greenwood’s still out, but someone like Joe Gelhardt would have been a really nice addition, for me, into that substitution bench and I think that’d have given a lot of Leeds fans a lot of buzz before the game. I think we’re all a bit worried about the bench, and understandably so before the game started.”
Leeds signed the 18-year-old back in the previous summer transfer window from Wigan Athletic for a fee of £900k. Since then, the teenager has made five appearances for Leeds’ U23s side in which he has managed to score one goal and provide one assist (per Transfermarkt).
The centre-forward has yet to make an appearance for the Leeds senior side.
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TIF Thoughts on Conor McGilligan’s comments on Gelhardt…
It’s nice to hear that McGilligan thinks that Gelhardt could be an important player for Leeds this season, this shows that he has a lot of confidence in the 18-year-old’s abilities on the pitch.
However, it’s impossible to say whether or not Gelhardt’s inclusion on Leeds’ substitutes bench in their game against Leicester would have had any impact on the result.
Moving forward, with Rodrigo set to miss Leeds’ upcoming Premier League clash against Crystal Palace after testing positive for the current global virus, Gelhardt could well feature on the substitutes’ bench for that clash in Rodrigo’s absence.