Chris Wood missed a glorious chance for Leeds United in their goalless draw with Preston North End.
Thomas Christiansen has completely refuted any suggestion that Chris Wood’s missed chance in Leeds’ clash with Preston North End at the weekend was a sign that the striker has been distracted by recent transfer speculation, the Yorkshire Evening Post reports.
Wood has, perhaps unsurprisingly, has been attracting Premier League attention this summer, with one club making a £12 million bid for the New Zealander months after he finished the previous season with 30 goals in all competitions.
The 25-year-old opened his account for the new campaign in the opening day win over Bolton, and had a glorious chance to get on the scoresheet in the clash with the Lilywhites when he was put through on goal.
It was a chance that many Leeds fans would have expected to have led to the opening goal, but Preston stopper Chris Maxwell produced a fine save.
And Christiansen was adamant that Maxwell’s save – one of the many that the goalkeeper made during the second-half once Leeds finally got on top in the contest – should be praised, and dismissed any suggestion that Wood would have definitely buried the opportunity had there not been any speculation about his future.
“No, no, no,” he said, as reported by the Yorkshire Evening Post.
“From my point of view I believe he put the ball where he should.
“The only thing is that the goalkeeper made a good save. This situation happens.”
As Christiansen suggests, rather than being critical of Wood, it is surely fair to say that Maxwell deserves plenty of credit for producing such a fine save as Leeds’ talisman burst through.
And to suggest that Wood had had his head turned by the rumours, and that impacted on his performance against Preston, is surely an extreme one as his goalscoring form is likely to have made him a player Premier League clubs have been looking at for several months – so there is surely little reason why this latest wave of rumours would have had a greater impact on him.
Instead, it is surely much fairer to suggest that he simply endured a disappointing day at the office, just as many of his teammates did.
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