Thomas Christiansen Lavishes Praise Upon Loanee Matthew Pennington Following Friendly Performance

Ahead of the new Championship season Leeds United are looking to strengthen their squad in the hopes of making a push for promotion to the Premier League. Amongst their new recruits is Everton-owned defender Matthew Pennington.

The youngster made a name for himself in a blue shirt last campaign by scoring at Anfield in the Merseyside derby and has now been allowed to join Leeds United on a season long loan in order to gain some much needed game time at a top competitive level.

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In an interview with The Yorkshire Evening Post, Leeds United's head coach Thomas Christensen praised the young defender, saying: "He [Pennington] has shown that he can play.”

Pennington started for Leeds United in their 2-0 friendly win over Oxford United at Elland Road on Saturday and stayed on the pitch for the whole 90 minutes, putting in a good performance for the West-Yorkshire outfit.

Christiansen was impressed with the 22-year-old's professionalism and went on to explain how he had adapted to life at Leeds and settled into playing so quickly:

“Matthew Pennington came from a pre-season with Everton so there was no problem there to come direct into the team". 

Upon being quizzed regarding further recruitment at Elland Road, Christiansen remained tight-lipped when asked if he could give any indication of how many more players fans could expect to see pen a deal with the Whites.

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“I don’t know how many players but we are working on that to try to take or have the most competitive team that is possible. We are looking, put it like that."

After narrowly missing out on a spot in the top six of the Championship table last campaign, Leeds will be hoping to put their misfortunes behind them this coming season and push for a place in the play-offs, if not the automatic promotion spots.