A former coach of one Leeds United star has claimed that the attacker is somewhat “lazy” behind the scenes and only trains at 70%.
Daniel Farke is renowned for taking no nonsense behind the scenes. Eddie Gray even said it this week having watched some training sessions held by the German manager at Leeds United‘s Thorp Arch.
The Leeds manager has instilled a family-like environment at Elland Road and he has had to with such a young squad. There is a feeling that morale is very high, but that it is strict too.
Farke is the leader at Leeds and everyone has to abide by his rules and guidelines. But within that there is a sense of freedom, much like the tactics he is adopting to get the best out of the players.
One player that is thriving under the guidance of Farke is Crysencio Summerville who won the Player of the Season award after 30 goals and assists combined.
Summerville’s attitude has come into question in the past however, and his old Feyenoord coach Gaston Taument hasn’t spoken too kindly about a young Summerville to The Athletic.
Gaston Taument on Crysencio Summerville’s attitude in training
“He’s been a very good player from the start but he was also little. Everybody was a big fan because he was very technical but he wasn’t so strong.
“But in Holland, it doesn’t matter so much. The first thought is about technique: how good is it? And Crysensio had a lot of it, very technical. I worked with him a lot.
“When we were training — and this is how it is sometimes because kids are kids — he could be a bit lazy. He knows I would say that about him.
“The guys trained four times a week, we wanted focus and effort 100 per cent. Sometimes, he would train on 70 per cent. You could see it, you knew it was happening.”
Whether that remains true is unclear but whatever Farke is doing with Summerville is clearly working.
If it means he allows him to reel it back a bit in training then great, because he is turning it on on a Saturday.
Summerville’s immaturity at Leeds in the past
In 2021, Summerville was starring for the U23 side alongside Sam Greenwood. A moment away at Burnley saw Summerville have a strop after being told he couldn’t take a spot-kick during a 5-2 win.
Greenwood was the designated penalty taker. Recently he took the ball off Joel Piroe to put Leeds ahead from the penalty spot late on against Hull, Leeds eventually winning 3-1. Piroe was not best pleased.
Even under Jesse Marsch he was questioned for going to his home country to celebrate his 21st birthday shortly after scoring the winner against Liverpool. Marsch said he told Summerville he couldn’t go back.
But on Instagram it was clear that Summerville was back in The Netherlands. But this season, the Hull incident aside, Summerville has been excellent and has shown maturity by choosing to stay at Leeds.