
Leeds youngster Sam Greenwood has done his chances of a place in the side against Southampton no harm after netting his first goal for England over the international break.
The Sunderland and Arsenal youth academy product opened the scoring for the U20s in a 3-1 victory against Germany, applying the finishing touch after being set up by Manchester City’s James McAtee.
Greenwood is yet to fully break into the senior side at Elland Road since arriving for a reported £1.5m in 2020, making his league debut in the 4-1 loss to former club Arsenal just before Christmas when the Whites’ injury crisis was arguably at its most problematic.
With those issues only increasing the 20-year-old was unexpectedly thrown into the fray against Wolves following Patrick Bamford’s foot injury, and was heavily involved in the equaliser scored by Rodrigo after capitalising on a iffy clearance from Romain Saiss.
Bamford’s injury has since been confirmed to keep him out for a minimum of 6 weeks, essentially ending his season, whilst Tyler Roberts’ is definitely over and Joe Gelhardt remained on the bench at Molineux with suspected back issues.
The only other realistic options for Jesse Marsch are Spainard Rodrigo, who was stepped up massively during the recent back-to-back victories or Dan James who had been experimented with up front multiple times by ex-boss Marcelo Bielsa.
James has not always shown his greatest effectiveness to come through the middle however and demonstrated these shortcomings in a similar role for Wales against Austria, whilst Rodrigo is in as good form as he has ever been for Leeds operating from a slightly deeper position and Marsch may be reluctant to disrupt that with a push further forward.
Gelhardt has been the cause of much fanfare this season and only increased that with his dramatic winner against Norwich, but with no news on his fitness from the latest injury update at Thorp Arch it still remains in question whether the 19-year-old is in a position to appear in the starting line-up against the Saints.
All this means Greenwood may be in line to earn some surprise minutes once again, and he has shown clear ability for the U23’s, with an eye for a spectacular free-kick providing the standouts of his showreel from his time thus far with Leeds.
Whilst that has yet to translate to the senior side, he hasn’t really had a proper opportunity to try and show that in front of the Elland Road faithful yet. This weekend may provide him with the perfect stage to do just that.
