‘Let’s not get it wrong’: Agbonlahor is seemingly changing his mind about Leeds

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Gabby Agbonlahor is seemingly changing his mind about Leeds, as he told the Football Show on Sky Sports (27/10/20 at 11:50 am) that he thinks they will now hurt a lot of opposition teams this season.

Following his war-of-words with Leeds fans, Agbonlahor admitted that Aston Villa should have perhaps been more ‘cautious’ against Marcelo Bielsa’s side on Friday and Dean Smith will ‘learn’ from that 3-0 defeat.

Leading up to that match, the former Villa striker was pretty confident about his side’s chances of winning and labelled the newly-promoted team as a ‘myth’.

But it seems as though that defeat, which ended Villa’s 100% record, has made Agbonlahor realise the difficult task which opposition teams face when coming up against this non-stop Leeds side.

“I think what Dean Smith would have learnt from the game is that some games when you play certain opposition, you might have to twist the tactics,” Agbonlahor told Sky Sports.

“I feel Leeds the way they play now and maybe Villa should have played more cautious. Maybe a bit more on the counter-attack and a bit more defensive-minded because of how good Leeds were. I feel like he’s still learning. It’s his second season in the Premier League. He doesn’t get carried away. He knows how good he has done this season and it’s still a learning curve.

“I am sure the game, like the one on Friday night, he will learn from and some games he will be a bit more cautious on the attacking approach. And let’s not get it wrong, Leeds will do this to a lot of teams this season. What they did to Aston Villa, they will do to a lot of teams.

“Some of their players can probably run double as hard as most Premier League players. It’s a credit to Bielsa for the way he has got them working hard – big credit to Leeds United and Bielsa.”

What was even more impressive about Leeds was they were coming up against a team bang in-form and a group of players and coaching staff who have previously tasted what it’s like facing this team.

Added with that, their rock and arguably their best player in Kalvin Phillips was missing through injury, including Liam Cooper, with Luke Ayling playing at the heart of the defence.

All in all, it was a mightily impressive performance from those in Yorkshire and you would expect this mini rivalry, which has built up over the years, will continue when they meet one another for the reverse fixture at Elland Road.