Leeds United duo Jack Harrison and Junior Firpo have backed their new manager Sam Allardyce after the 68-year-old claimed he was ahead of the likes of Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp and Mikel Arteta in football.
The Whites are currently in the midst of one of the closest relegation battles in recent memory, with just six points covering the bottom five teams – Leeds sat outside of the drop zone on goal difference alone.
It’s now up to Allardyce to work the miracles that he’s managed at numerous different clubs in the past, having kept the likes of Blackburn Rovers, Sunderland and Crystal Palace all up after a mid-season intervention.
Jack Harrison said: “In his own way, he has the right to say that. He’s very experienced and has a lot of knowledge about the game. It’s Sam Allardyce. Everyone knows who he is and it’s for a reason.”
Junior Firpo said: “He’s an experienced manager. He’s been managing for 29 years so he has the right [to say it]. He’s been in football a long time and throughout all the changes [in the game], he has been changing as well.”
With just four matches remaining to make his impact on Leeds’ season, Allardyce has focused on bringing up the group’s morale in his first few days at Thorp Arch.
Jack Harrison said: “It was about confidence. It was clear to him we weren’t playing with confidence. That was the first thing he wanted to address, and the other thing is tactically being organised, defending, and not conceding as many goals. Those were the first two things he said and we stripped everything back to basics. He has a great reputation of keeping teams in the Premier League. We’re all going to buy into it and give it everything we’ve got. His natural charisma and characteristics, and of his staff, brings a lot of energy into the training sessions and even in the building. It’s given a little bit of lift to the team and even just having that presence has given us a bit of confidence.”
With Newcastle, West Ham and Tottenham all coming up after their trip to the Etihad Stadium this weekend to face reigning – and now hopeful – champions Manchester City, Harrison remains adamant that the Whites can achieve their mission of staying in the Premier League for another season.
Jack Harrison said: “We have a great squad, a lot of talented players on the team. I don’t believe we should be in the situation we’ve been in. There have been times throughout the season when we haven’t got the results we deserved or we should have got through small mistakes here and there. It’s happened a lot. We definitely have the capabilities of being a team in the Premier League, it’s just believing in ourselves to do that. The squad believes that absolutely and believe we can stay up.”
Source:
Leeds United Daily news - Kanak Chauhan - -
