Leeds United’s Ronaldo Vieira was not included in the squad for Sunday’s win at Bolton.
Ian Harte has claimed on Twitter that he was “very surprised” to see Ronaldo Vieira left out of Leeds United’s squad for the trip to Bolton Wanderers on Sunday.
Leeds beat the Trotters 3-2 to get the Thomas Christiansen era off to a flier, with two goals from Kalvin Phillips, either side of a Chris Wood header, doing the damage.
Vieira returned to United training at the same time as everybody else this summer – a fact which made his omission all that more puzzling, especially after Christiansen claimed pre match that he had no injury concerns at all.
The 19-year-old had an excellent breakthrough season under Garry Monk last time around, having graduated from the club’s academy, and legendary left-back Harte was baffled by his exclusion.
Harte may be confused, but the Leeds boss was spot-on in his decision not to include him.
Vieira helped England win the Toulon Tournament in June and reported for training with the Whites not long after, giving him very little recovery time following a 38-match 2016-17 campaign.
The situation bears a resemblance to Stuart Dallas who, by his own admission, was below par last season and cited his swift return from the European Championships as a potential cause.
Keeping Vieira in reserve was a smart move by Christiansen and, hopefully for Leeds, Vieira does not suffer the same problems as Dallas did last time around.
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