Former Leeds United manager Neil Redfearn has insisted that Wilfried Gnonto needs to find a way to apply himself better as he feels the winger is not doing justice to his natural ability at this stage of his career.
The Italy winger signed a new four-year contract with Leeds over the weekend to commit his future to Elland Road until at least the end of the 2027/28 season.
Gnonto has started all of Leeds’ opening four Championship games this season but apart from his goal against Portsmouth in the opening weekend, he is yet to make any other goal contribution in the league so far.
With Leeds losing Georginio Rutter to Brighton and Crysencio Summerville to West Ham this summer, Daniel Farke would be keen to see the Italy international step up for the Whites this season.
Neil Redfearn challenges Wilfried Gnonto to apply himself and be more ‘switched-on in games
The former Leeds boss stressed that he wished that he had the natural pace and ability as Gnonto, during his playing career as he would have applied himself even more to get better.
He insisted that for a player of his talent, Gnonto is not doing enough and is only showing brief moments of brilliance when he could be so much more on the pitch if he was a bit more ‘switched-on’.
Redfearn said on BBC Radio Leeds: “If I were that quick and if I had that much ability, I’d really push myself to apply myself every week.
“I look at him and he gets by.
“For somebody who is a really talented boy, who could really take teams to task and he has done it today [Saturday].
“He showed little glimpses in moments in the game where he was almost unplayable but then you come to the stuff around the goals – he had a goal disallowed for being offside, he put a chance straight at the keeper and he was offside and was caught offside again.
“All these things are like a lack of intensity going on inside his thought process and he has got to be more switched on than that.”
Neil Redfearn Urges Gnonto To Not Limit Himself
The ex-Leeds boss is wary that the Italian winger could limit himself by just being a simple winger when he has the talent to be so much more because of his ability on the ball and his penchant for scoring great goals.
“He probably is a bright kid but I would say, don’t pigeonhole yourself to just be that winger who runs at the full-backs, takes him on, gets a cross in and that’s it because there is far more in his armoury.
“Last season, some of the goals he scored were top-drawer and he has got that ability.”
