gruev has been good in recent games, excellent. him and tanaka were off it last night. you might say rothwells delivery was excellent but iirc we've only got 1 from a set piece of his this season. he is OK, a decent championship player. everyone saying why not start him, I'm guessing 98% would have started with that side

I was disappointed he didn't start Rothwell, i was saying to friends last night at the start of the match. Rothwell is much much more creative than Gruev. Ampadu is better than Gruev also in that role. I'm not saying Gruev is poor, far from it, i rate him, but against teams who are good defensively and especially when we're at home, i don't think he's the right option, away from home against a good team, different conversation (though i do think Ampadu is the better player).

I think Rothwell will have felt a bit cheesed off that after starting in the 7-0 against Cardiff he hasn’t started a league game since. He’s had a really good season and I don’t think many people saw him being dropped for the last 3 games. There was a theory that away from home against the bigger teams Gruev gives us better defensive cover, and against all the other teams Rothwell’s your man, especially at home. It’s a massive headache in the best possible way for Farke now. Your set piece specialist who’s had a really good season has just helped topple a big rival with two top quality deliveries to win the game, and you have the joint best team in the league next up. We’ll have to trust Farke on this one, and in fairness to the fella, he keeps churning the results out.

Leeds' away record with Tanaka and Rothwell starting is something like 2 wins in 9, so I think adding a more defensive midfielder in there was right IMO. Also, with Struijk injured, Gruev is the only option, and I think given the amount of space Bellingham got in the away game, Gruev was always going to start this game, and from a defensive point of view, I thought it worked. Sunderland couldn't play through us and Bellingham was very quiet for most of the game. I do think if Struijk is able to do 90 minutes, he'll start, and Ampadu will move into midfield with Tanaka for the rest of the season.

agree with everything you said