In our exclusive interview, the ex Wolves striker discusses Leeds' European charge, potential England call-ups and the Football League season so-far.
Don Goodman believes Leeds have a genuine chance of making Europe his season, after missing out in the last campaign by only six points.
The former striker and commentator also believes Leeds forward Dominic Calvert-Lewin is in prime position to cement his place in the England squad as backup to Harry Kane. Goodman also describes Sunderland striker Brian Brobbey as a real asset to the Black Cats.
In our exclusive interview, Goodman further discusses Wolves’ start to the season in the Championship, with Cesar Peixoto’s side second favourites behind West Ham in the football betting. as well as his thoughts on the managerial changes in League One.
Leeds United fans were quietly optimistic of a European charge this season. Do you think they’ll have enough in the tank to mount a challenge for those top 8 places?
When you think they finished 14th last season, it sounds average. It’s definitely fine for a newly promoted club, but actually when you looked at the final table, they were only six points off eighth place Brighton, who got the final European spot.
So that’s not a million miles away. Then when you consider the really poor start that they had last season, you do think that if they can keep up this type of form so far, then they’ve got a strong chance.
They’ve only lost five of the last 30 Premier League games, and lost one of the last 14, so they’ve become one of the hardest teams to beat in the Premier League.
So, the answer to the question has to be why not? They’re unbeaten in the first five games and they’ve only conceded three goals, which is the joint best defensive record with Everton.
Another factor is a lot of the rivals for the top eight will already be playing European football this year, and we’ve seen how difficult juggling the two can be sometimes.
It can be massively tough sometimes to cope with the fixture demands, so I think you’d have to say if eighth place is going to make it, then they have a genuine chance.
I’m cautiously optimistic for Leeds United this season.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin has found himself back in the England squad in the place of Ivan Toney and Ollie Watkins. Is this a big opportunity to nail down a permanent spot in Thomas Tuchel’s squad?
Well, that’s what it appears to be based on Tuchel’s selection of Dominic Calvert-Lewin.
I think the Leeds United medical team deserve a special mention, to be honest, to get him through a full season like that.
It’s brilliant to see because there’s no doubt that injuries have held his career back with what he went through at Everton.
There are only him and Harry Kane that are, what you’d call strikers in that squad. Dominic Calvert-Lewin is unlike most other strikers in terms of his genuine physicality.
When I saw him at Elland Road against Newcastle a few weeks ago, he was unplayable.
You’d hope that if Thomas Tuchel feels a game that needs turning or changing, then he’s got a brilliant option on the bench in Calvert-Lewin.
With it being a four-match international window, you would think he’ll have plenty of minutes and a big opportunity to show what he can bring to England.
But he certainly seems to be in prime position to definitely cement that backup spot, given where the likes of Ollie Watkins and Ivan Toney are playing their football.
Do you think Jayden Bogle is unfortunate to miss out after his start to the season?
I think the big factor that goes against Jayden Bogle, who has been playing really well for quite a long time, is the fact that he’s been excelling as a wing-back.
Thomas Tuchel traditionally plays with a flat-back four. Now obviously Jayden Bogle has played in flat-back fours, but I bet you Thomas Tuchel hasn’t seen him do that.
I bet he’s only ever seen him play as a wing-back and the other factor is that competition.
I know there’s injuries to Reece James and Tino Livramento, but there’s Trent Alexander-Arnold as well who’s in the squad.
He’s used Jarell Quansah at right back, Ezri Konsa can play there as well and even Declan Rice has been pushed out there at times.
I’m not recommending that’s a long-term solution. I’m just saying that those are some of the reasons why Jayden Bogle hasn’t been looked at.
All he can do is keep producing really high-level performances and hope that Thomas Tuchel notices him and trusts him enough to give him an opportunity.
That’s all that Jayden Bogle can do. He just needs to keep knocking on the door and hopefully he’ll get an opportunity at some point.
Brian Brobbey is looking like an absolute nightmare for defenders to play against this season. Are you hopeful the hamstring injury he picked up isn’t a serious one?
I think Sunderland will be praying that it’s not a serious one.
I mean his last Premier League game at the Etihad was just almost perfect scoring a hat-trick against a team like Manchester City.
He obviously didn’t deserve to be on the losing team, but when I looked at the numbers his performance was mind-blowing.
He won 86% of his ground duels and 80% of his aerial duels against two top centre-halves. He’s not even that tall which makes it more impressive.
You could argue that he’s the best striker in the Premier League when it comes to holding the ball up and bringing teammates into play, but when I watched his goals at the Etihad, it really highlights that he’s got football intelligence as well.
His movement and awareness were excellent to get into position for what in essence were tap-ins. But without that football intelligence and the brain, he wouldn’t have had those tap-ins.
He’s a defender’s nightmare right now. They’re not used to that physicality. He’s very similar to Dominic Calvert-Lewin in terms of that physicality and getting up against defenders.
The physical side of football is drifting out of the game, so when these modern defenders come up against it, I do think they find it really hard to play against.
And the brilliant thing for Sunderland is that Brian Brobbey is still only 24, so they could have him for quite some considerable time.
Let’s just hope it’s a minor injury that won’t keep him out for too many games because he’s a real asset to this Sunderland team.
The Black Country derby was the first league meeting between Wolves and West Brom since 2021. How did you think the game was from both teams’ perspective?
I’ve got to be honest. I went there to commentate on the game expecting it to be more of a contest.
That’s because Wolves’ form had been a little bit hit and miss in terms of performances, despite the results being good.
Whereas West Bromwich Albion, by contrast, had probably delivered more impressive performances than Wolves had up until that point.
On the day, quality told. I think player for player, Wolves have got a better squad. They’ve got more depth, they’ve got more Premier League experience, and that seemed to shine through really in this game.
For West Brom, I don’t know whether it was the occasion for one or two of the younger players, but they just didn’t really turn up, and they couldn’t really cope with the quality that Wolves had in those forward areas.
If it wasn’t for Max O’Leary, it would have been a more emphatic win.
Even though it was only 1-0, it still felt really comfortable because West Brom barely created a meaningful chance or barely had a shot at goal.
So, it was a bad day at the office for them. But I must admit, I was surprised at the gulf on the day.
Fer Lopez would have done himself no harm in scoring the winner in that game with the Wolves fans. What have you made of his start to the season overall?
It’s been an interesting journey for him at Wolves because there were high hopes for him.
He came in and it was obvious that he was struggling with the physicality of the Premier League.
Wolves then sent him back out on loan where he’s matured and grown up since he’s come back to the club.
Obviously, that is a game that can create hero worship for life, isn’t it, really? The nice thing was that he had already been Wolves’ best player so far this season.
He’s been the standout player for Wolves prior to the derby, so it was really appropriate for him to score the winner.
When you look at the numbers for him so far, seven Championship games, four goals, and two assists, so it’s a brilliant start for him on a personal level.
He looks like one of the standout players in the Championship so far this season.
To me, he oozes quality, and he looks to have a big future I would say.
Many expected Wolves to be among the favourites for promotion, however there was an element of doubt over Cesar Peixoto’s appointment. What have you made of his impact in the dugout so far?
I think obviously he’s not particularly well known on these shores, and so with that comes an element of doubt.
Even a great like Arsène Wenger had to win people over when he was appointed at Arsenal and nobody had heard of him because he’d been managing in Japan and so on and so forth.
There’s no doubt winning games of football buys you time and lifts your popularity.
Another manager that we didn’t know too much about when he arrived on these shores ironically was at Wolves in Nuno Espírito Santo. He was exactly the same when he came in.
Statistically, this season Wolves have the same number of points as they did when Nuno’s team won the Championship title in 2017-18.
So, he’s doing okay, you can’t really knock the start to the season that they’ve had.
I do think Wolves will improve, and maybe that performance in the Black Country Derby can be the catalyst where they can produce more consistent performances.
Performances where they’re dominating teams like they did against West Brom a little bit more, because I hadn’t really seen too much of that over the course of 90 minutes so far.
So, I think when you’re analysing his start. When you look at where they are in the table with the game in hand, you have to say it’s been a very, very decent start.
What have you made of Bolton’s start to life back in the Championship? Do you think they’ve got enough about them to survive?
Obviously, survival for Bolton Wanderers would have been the target coming back into the Championship.
I think 10 points from your opening eight games at the new level is a decent return.
I’m looking at their fixtures, and they’ve got a really tough run coming their way.
They have to play Stoke, who are seventh, Wolves, who are fourth, Southampton, who would have been sixth without the points deduction, Middlesbrough, who are third, and Bristol City, who are eighth.
So, they’ve got a really tough-looking next five games. If they come through that and they’re still averaging more than a point a game, as they are now, then you’d be hopeful that they’d be able to kick on and definitely survive.
But I think there’s a big five games coming up for Bolton.
What are your thoughts on Steven Schumacher’s attacking & fearless approach to games?
They’ve been brilliant fun to watch, and maybe Steven Schumacher has decided that attack is the best form of defence for this team because there’s only 10 that have scored more, but there’s only Norwich and Burnley that have conceded more.
So, there’s two areas of concern for me, and it’s that they’ve conceded five set pieces and not scored any.
So, they are a minus five deficits for set pieces, which is the joint most that anybody’s conceded in the league.
They also seem to have a bad habit of conceding late goals. They’ve conceded six goals after the 75th minute, which has cost them on a couple of occasions.
So, if they can fix these two areas, you’d fancy them to survive, but there’s no doubt that they’re a fun watch at the minute.
I think if you’re a neutral and Bolton are on the TV, I think you’re almost guaranteed goals in those games.
Graham Alexander is the new Preston North End manager. How big of a job does he have on his hands?
Based on everything that we’ve seen from Preston so far, you would only imagine that they’re going to be in a relegation scrap.
That’s what it looks like at this moment in time, but that could change. If you can win two or three on the bounce, then all of a sudden, the picture in the Championship, particularly at this stage of the season, changes very quickly.
But they did spend a considerable amount by their own standards, so it’s been a disappointing start.
You feel for Paul Heckingbottom because we know that he’s a good manager. We know that he’s had success in this league before, and it feels like they’ve gone really early in terms of changing him.
Then for Preston to go and get a club legend in Graham Alexander could be the boost that the club needs.
He’s obviously loved as a player with over 400 appearances, but he’s leaving a club that could possibly leapfrog Preston, if Preston go down and Bradford go up.
It’s very reminiscent of the Rob Edwards scenario last season, obviously, albeit a level lower, because Rob obviously went back to Wolves because that was a club close to his heart, and it very nearly happened that Wolves went down and Middlesbrough came up.
I think that would have to be a consideration for Graham Alexander, but I do think the pull of his heartstrings and Preston North End has been the thing that has got it over the line.
But he’s not daft. He’s been around football a very long time as both a player and a manager now.
He’ll know that the first thing he’s got to do is get this team winning games of football.
They’ve only won one game in the Championship so far, so it has to happen pretty quickly, otherwise it’s going to be a long, hard winter for Preston.
From a Bradford perspective, how big of a loss is Alexander considering the success they’ve had together. Who would be your ideal replacement?
It’s a huge loss for Bradford City.
He’s taken them from League Two, where they got a little bit stuck in the division for four or five years, to the top of League One in a very quick period of time.
It makes you think how do you replace that? Obviously, Paul Heckingbottom is now available, but I don’t know.
Graham has left them in an amazing situation, and when you consider actually that Bradford usually get not far short of 20,000 fans at home games, and Preston’s can vary between 12-15,000, then it shows the size of the club that Bradford is and it’s enormous potential. Graham must have had a tough decision.
I think it’s a brilliant opportunity for somebody to come in and pick up where Graham Alexander left off.
I’m really curious to see whether they go down the tried and tested like they did with Graham, or whether they go for a younger coach making their way.
Whoever they get in has to be able to get that group of players to play the type of football that has got them to this position, I would say.
So that’s an interesting dynamic for the powers that be at Bradford City.
What have you made of the start made by Oxford, and do you think they can contend for promotion this season under Aaron Ramsey?
I will always look at teams that get relegated from the Championship and think that the reality is that they should be pushing at the top end one way or another.
But then I had a look at who they’ve lost and it’s several key players. I didn’t realise they’d lost Brian De Keersmaecker, Przemyslaw Placheta, Stanley Mills, and Myles Peart-Harris.
That is four massive key players who, if they were still at the club, you’d almost go definitely a top six team that without hesitation.
But there’s lots of factors that you’ve got to consider, and that’s just one of them. They’ve lost key players.
Then you’ve got Aaron Ramsey, who’s a new manager with very little past experience, only a few games in caretaker charge of Cardiff City.
You’ve also got him implementing a completely different style to the one that they had last year in the Championship, where they had the lowest average possession in the whole of the Championship, whereas Oxford and Aaron wants them to be a dominant possession-based team with the ball.
So, they’re now the third highest average possession in League One. Only Leicester City and Stockport County have more of the ball on average than Oxford.
And the other factor is they’ve played at least one game less than most of the league, and in some cases, I think there’s seven or eight teams that have played two more games.
So, when you put it all together, they’ve lost one game all season away at Huddersfield Town, who are a decent team.
They’re currently 10th, and if they win the game in hand, they shoot all the way up to third.
I think you’ve got to have them down as a good team for the level, with good players and definitely in with a shout of getting straight back up.
How would you assess the job done by Tom Cleverley as Argyle head coach, especially after the very difficult start they had to last season? How important is it for young English coaches to prove they can be successes?
Obviously, there’s a massive clamour by clubs, particularly in the top two divisions, to look abroad at young up-and-coming managers from foreign climes, and some clubs have had great success with that.
So, I do think it’s important that our young English lads that are recently retired get an opportunity.
There’s a real genuine hope from me that they can do a job, because it seems to me that they’re not getting opportunities, or as many opportunities as you would deem reasonable, really.
Tom Cleverley is a manager I like. I thought he did brilliant at Watford, but we all know Watford’s a bit of a basket case of a football club where hiring and firing managers is concerned!
The poor start last season really cost them. They just ran out of time to make the deficit up.
But when you consider they only missed out on the playoffs by two points, and they’ve already got four more points so far this season than they had at this stage last season they really shouldn’t have to play ‘catch up’ this time around.
You look at that loss that they had on Saturday at home to Burton, the data suggests it was a game to me that they dominated, and according to the Opta stats, they missed five big chances, so to lose 1-0 must have been tough to take.
The other two games that they’ve lost so far this season have been to Stockport and Leicester, who you’d expect to be challenging at the very top.
So that to me, tells me they’re not a million miles away, although I think Tom Cleverley would want one or two more clean sheets.
They’re in fourth position at the minute and they had a strong end to last season, so I’m optimistic for them.
How much does Plymouth Argyle’s location in the far south-west of England count against them when it comes to recruiting players? Do you think it’s a big problem for them?
So, I played at Sunderland and sometimes you felt like you were a three-day camel ride away from everywhere other than Newcastle.
But when I played at Sunderland, I did get a sense that geographical location might be a hurdle in terms of attracting players.
To be fair to Plymouth, you would expect it to be less of a hurdle at League One level but you do know that they’re a very ambitious club, and they want to get higher up the chain.
If they do, then it might start to become a small factor, especially when they’re dealing with foreign players who invariably a lot of them want to be in and around London.
So, I think it’s less of an issue at the moment but could become an issue as they go through the leagues.
Plymouth is the biggest city in England never to have had a club play in the top division. Will it take someone mega-wealthy to buy Argyle for them to ever stand a chance of making it into the Premier League?
Plymouth are a really big football club. It’s a one-club city, and there’s no doubt that a wealthy benefactor normally results in a positive outcome or a better outcome.
History shows that it’s possible, because you’d maybe look at Plymouth and go, tiny little club.
Well, I give you Bournemouth and I give you Brentford, who are not dissimilar in size and stature and probably not too dissimilar in history prior to their current spells in the Premier League.
So, I think they’re great examples of what is possible. But obviously, in order to make the dream come true, everything has to be right.
Clearly those two are two clubs that benefited from investment, so if I were Plymouth, I’d be looking at those two clubs as a brilliant example of what is possible.
But obviously all the ducks have to be in a row, and the stars need to align for that ultimate outcome.
What have you made of Leicester City’s start to the season under Russell Martin?
It’s been very tough for them. There’s no doubt about it in terms of the results and in terms of some of the performances.
I think the home 4-0 drubbing to Oxford was a particular low point.
I think a massive impact is the toxic atmosphere around the club. It’s no real surprise that the two games that they have actually lost have come at home rather than away.
You’ve got to remember that Russell Martin was nowhere near the club before this atmosphere became so toxic.
But the only way to change it is to win games of football. Russell’s not daft, he knows that.
His style of football is fairly unique, particularly at League One level, but he’s proved in the past that given time, he usually develops a winning team.
I like Russell as a person. I’ve seen him develop some really nice, good, attractive teams to watch, and I’m hoping that he can do the same at Leicester City.
From what you’ve watched of Leicester so far, are there any players who have impressed you?
There’s plenty to choose from. Louis Page is the obvious one for me with the three assists he’s got.
You can chuck in Sammy Braybrooke, Will Alves and Jayden Joseph. These are all young lads that have been given an opportunity because of the situation at this football club, and I think it’s fair to say that none of them are letting the team down or themselves down.
So, that’s the benefit of the situation Leicester find themselves in.
I actually think in Russell Martin they’ve got a coach that can develop these kinds of youngsters and improve them and make them better, which will be obviously massively for the benefit for Leicester City going forward in terms of transfer fees that they may get.
So, all the youngsters have done really well so far, and long may that continue.
It hasn’t exactly gone to plan as of yet, what needs to change at the football club to see them start climbing up the table?
Well, they’re up for sale, so if they can find an appropriate buyer, that would help. I think there are a few people within the hierarchy at the club who the fans are frustrated with. I’m on the outside looking in but the main one seems to be John Rudkin.
He seems to be the common denominator of this period of decline at Leicester.
Obviously, he saw the good times too. I don’t think you can deny that, but while he remains in post, the toxicity will undoubtedly remain.
Like I said, I’m on the outside looking in, so whether the level of fury is fair or not is not really for me to say but I think that atmosphere which is having a negative impact is bound to remain until that football club is sold or things change upstairs.
What have you made of Bristol Rovers’ start to the season, and do you think they should be considered the favourites to win promotion from League Two?
I think they’ve carried on where they left off from last season. I don’t think it’s any surprise that Steve Evans is doing well at this particular level.
I think they would be the favourites, or one of the favourites, purely and simply because they’ve got him as a manager with such a track record and such experience.
They’re averaging 1.9 points a game so far this season and that sort of form will get them automatically promoted. I’ve got no doubt about that because it’s the top 3 who go up at that level.
It’s a big club that has started the season really well. It’s obviously disappointing to see them down in League Two.
You do feel that it is a club that belongs at a higher level, and hopefully this will be their year.
What do you make of Bristol Rovers’ search for an improved stadium? In light of the Chairman’s recent comments that the club are looking at building a new facility, instead of redeveloping the Memorial Stadium, do you think this is the correct decision? How important is building a modern stadium for increasing revenues in today’s financial climate within the EFL?
They are a big club, and I suspect as they go up a level, and I don’t think it will be long before they do, then that stadium won’t be fit for purpose.
I think they’ll need a bigger capacity, especially if they’re doing well. I think a new stadium and training facilities is always an attraction for a player when a club is looking to sign them.
If you can bring them to a nice stadium and show them nice training facilities, then it’s two massive ticks in boxes that players would look for.
It’s good to hear that they’ve got that ambition. I’m not a structural expert, so I don’t know what the possibilities are in terms of developing the Memorial Stadium or weighing up the cost of developing that as opposed to building a new one.
But it seems to me like the owner is very ambitious, and if I were a Bristol Rovers fan, I think I’d be excited for what the future may bring.
