- Thanks to Dan O’Carroll for keeping us up to date with Leeds’ changes
Leeds United began their 2024-25 Championship campaign on Saturday with a 3-3 home draw against Portsmouth.
Brenden Aaronson’s 95th-minute equaliser earned the hosts a point at Elland Road – we like to think that they benefited from squad numbers karma.
On Friday, Leeds announced their numbers for the coming campaign and four players in the 1-11 bracket wore different numbers for the club last season – Pascal Struijk dropped from 21 to 5, Joe Rodon was given 6 after wearing 14 on loan last season and Joël Piroe switched from 7 to 10, allowing Daniel James to move from 20 to 7.
The list in full – featuring zero occupancy from numbers 12-18 inclusive – can be seen here:
Against Portsmouth, Leeds began with seven of the 1-11 – as it happens, the players numbered 1-7 and all of them in the traditional spots for the English numbering system.
During the match – in which Leeds trailed 3-1 at half-time – manager Daniel Farke made four substitions: and the four players coming on were those numbered 8-11.
It was not like Wales at Euro 2016 where they ended up with 1-11 on the pitch but they came fairly close – number 8 Joe Rothwell came on for 44 Ilia Gruev; Aaronson, with 11 on his back, replaced Wilfried Gnonto (19) and number 9 Patrick Bamford replaced 19 Mateo Joseph.
There was one exception, though, as Piroe replaced the man who now has his old number 7, James.
However, it would be churlish to complain about a team finishing a game with ten of the 1-11 – only Oxford United and Coventry City had more 1-11 starters than Leeds (both eight) and nobody else got ten on the field.
