At one point it looked like Brenden Aaronson wasn’t going to get a second chance with Leeds United, but after returning to Elland Road, he’s become one of the more important players in Daniel Farke’s squad.
Aaronson is currently in his second U.S. men’s national team camp since returning to his parent club in England. The former Philadelphia Union homegrown has quickly hit the ground running in West Yorkshire, scoring two goals, earning Leeds’ Player of the Month honor for August, and helping the Lilywhites to a current fifth-place spot in the new EFL Championship season.
After enduring some stressful moments in his first season at Leeds, Aaronson is confident in his abilities to help get Leeds United back into the race for Premier League promotion.
“My decision going back to Leeds was, of course, one that took decisions,” Aaronson said Wednesday at a USMNT press conference. “I had unfinished business at Leeds and so a lot of things pointed me back to Leeds, you know. That was the biggest thing for me. It was like a feeling and wanting to go back and prove myself again.
“Since I’ve come back, I would say the first couple of weeks were pretty difficult mentally because you might see some fans getting upset with you and it’s just difficult,” Aaronson added. “You got to reprove yourself again, but I’m proud of myself. I’ve come back and done really well. I won Player of the Month, which is really good for me. And that was a really great start. And now I just want to keep building and keep scoring and assisting and yeah, just keep getting better.”
Aaronson might only be 23 years old but he is one of the veteran players in the USMNT squad. The New Jersey native has earned 44 caps to date for his country, scoring eight goals and featuring in multiple competitions during Gregg Berhalter’s time as head coach.
Now with a well-known manager like Mauricio Pochettino at the helm, Aaronson could take his game to the next level. Saturday’s home friendly will mark the first of many matches for the USMNT under Pochettino and although camp is only four days in, Aaronson has already noticed plenty of changes throughout the team.
“We’ve already learned a lot,” Aaronson said. “We learned about the style of play that we want to play today at training. One thing that we know for sure that we’ve really rehashed is the intensity of what we want to play at. We want to play at a high intensity. We want to play in the other team’s half. We want to have possession of the ball. He wants a confident team and that’s what we’re going to be.”
