Leeds United winger Largie Ramazani will be staying at Thorp Arch over the next week instead of international duty, while some of his competition for a starting spot will be across Europe.
The Whites have started reasonably well this season in their quest to finish in the automatic promotion places, winning the last two and picking up three successive clean sheets.
With an international break up this week, it gives Daniel Farke and the rest of the league’s managers a chance to bed in new signings and hone in on tactical structures after the first four games.
A significant number of Leeds’ squad are due to be involved in international fixtures this week, with four in the Wales squad: Joe Rodon, Ethan Ampadu, Karl Darlow and Charlie Crew.
Elsewhere, Junior Firpo will be set to play a key role for the Dominican Republic, Max Wöber will be in the Austria setup despite not featuring a great deal so far this season, Ilia Gruev travels with Bulgaria, and Brenden Aaronson joins up with the USMNT side – while new signings Manor Solomon and Ao Tanaka are in the Israel and Japan squads respectively.
In U21 action are Mateo Joseph (Spain) and Willy Gnonto (Italy), as they take on European Championship fixtures.
Remaining at Thorp Arch for the international break is Belgian winger Largie Ramazani, looking for his first start in September, following his debut off the bench against Hull City.
With Leeds’ wide options of Ramazani, Solomon, Gnonto, Dan James and Aaronson, they are largely okay with whoever ends up getting the nod each week – and that strength in depth to rotate should stand Farke in good stead if he leans on changing his lineup more often this season.
For Ramazani, a mini break before returning to Wetherby for training should allow him to get a headstart on other new signings, namely Solomon, away on duty.
It gives Ramazani a chance to get up to full speed in Farke’s way of playing without international fixtures getting in the way of preparations, and we could see him impress enough to earn his way into a starting position when the Burnley clash at Elland Road comes around.
We saw enough from the 23-year-old’s debut off the bench that he can add a great deal to this side, and that is only going to come out more and more when he’s bedded into the squad in September onwards.
