Ampadu States Leeds Aims for Entertaining Football

Leeds United captain Ethan Ampadu has stated that the team aims to deliver exciting football, following Joel Piroe’s late goal on Saturday against QPR, which secured a 2-0 victory. This goal marked Leeds’ 24th in the Championship this season, placing them one goal behind current league leaders Sunderland. Despite being the second-highest scoring team in the division, with 24 goals from their initial 15 matches, “The Whites” have encountered some fan criticism regarding their playing style. Ampadu informed BBC Radio Leeds, stating: “We’re trying to make it entertaining, obviously we come up against a lot of teams who try to slow the game down and play with a low block,” He continued: “The game can be broken up into a slower pace but that’s not always our fault.” Ampadu further commented: “We want to play in an entertaining way but at the end of the day we want to do what we have to to get the result and thankfully more often than not we’ve done that.” The team managed by Daniel Farke, which was defeated by Southampton in the previous season’s play-off final, currently holds the third position in the Championship, trailing Sheffield United and Sunderland by two points. Captain Ampadu has been sidelined since September due to a knee injury but is anticipated to make his return to play next month. Ilia Gruev, a fellow midfielder, is also recuperating from a knee injury, and the Wales international mentioned their mutual effort to motivate each other during recovery. He stated: “The recovery is going well. There’s still a bit of healing that needs to be done but I’m quite happy with it,” Ampadu added: “We’ve helped each other because there can be some lonely days when you’re doing rehab. You don’t want to wish there is another player with you but it’s the situation we’re in and we pick each other up.” He concluded: “We’re both hardworking individuals so it was naturally going to happen.”