Oli McBurnie expressed his delight at Luke Ayling returning from a long injury lay-off for Leeds United during their 5-2 defeat at Brentford on Saturday.
The Sheffield United striker posted on Ayling’s Instagram ‘the boy is back’, as Jesse Marsch handed the right-back 20 minutes against Thomas Frank’s free-scoring side.
This has been a four-month lay-off for Ayling, which included the 31-year-old undergoing knee surgery in May, but he will be hoping this is now the end of his previous troubles.
Ayling replaced youngster Cody Drameh against Thomas Frank’s side, but there is another right-back on the block that he has to worry about.
The hard-hitting Rasmus Kristensen arrived from RB Salzburg this summer to reunite with Marsch and now the Whites finally have cover in that area.
Nonetheless, Ayling shared how it was ‘so good’ to be back out on the turf, as Leif Davis posted in the comments section ‘Good to see you back out there’ and Tyler Roberts added ‘The boy back out there’.
LEEDS LEAKING GOALS
One big area of concern for Leeds last season was their defence, injuries and poor form didn’t help, but it’s starting to creep in again.
That’s ten conceded from their opening six matches, only the bottom two and Bournemouth have conceded more, so if Marsch can tweak that side of the pitch then everything else will sort itself out.
That will come with rhythm and consistency, including playing the same players at the back, which is something Leeds haven’t been able to do for a long while.
With Ayling returning, it will be interesting to see how he is used by Marsch, whether it’s staying at right-back, moving to centre-back, or being on the bench where he has to fight for his place again.
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