Leeds United, after a crushing 4-1 defeat to local neighbours Huddersfield Town sit in 13th positin in the Championship table and are a team looking at mid-table mediocrity once more this coming end of season.
Three consecutive wins against Bolton, Cardiff and Blackburn served to raise the hopes of Whites fans that a push to a top 10 placing was possible. However, the manner of the loss to the Terriers highlighted more weaknesses than the previous three wins indicated strengths.
With the end of the season only nine games away, the Yorkshire Evening Post’s Phil Hay, chief Leeds United writer for the newspaper, says that what Leeds United require to improve on the inconsistencies of this season is an influx of players in certain positions. For Hay, it’s a simple case of new central defenders, a ‘number 10′ and strikers who shoot at goal.
Leeds United gaffer Steve Evans says that the team will return to the training ground and attempt to put things right, yet Hay says that the club in the last three seasons, “have been more concerned with the bottom end of the table than they have with the top six.”
Hay says that the flaws are there to be seen, that Leeds United are a side destined for mid-table every season unless they address the weaknesses that are rife in the side. A strong group of midfielders and talented players dotted elsewhere throughout the side cannot be used as a prop when looking at the cracks and weaknesses elsewhere in the side.
Addressing the three main areas of concern, Hay points out that changes are needed from back to front, and through the middle: central defence, to attacking midfield and up top.
Defensively, Hay, like others, see Giuseppe Bellusci as the most consistent Leeds United central defender of the season so far – this after a nightmare patch including a one-man demolition job against Middlesbrough at the Riverside, a game where Bellusci put in an error-strewn performance including a superbly-executed, diving-header own goal. Still, he’s picked himself up from that and battled to establish some steadiness. However, as Hay says, “steady is not good enough in the Championship.”
Defensively Leeds United have been on the end of two recent four-goal humblings against Brighton and Huddersfield and all this in a division where recently-promoted Preston sit in 10th place, having conceded a mere 35 goals to Leeds’ 45. Keeping a clean sheet is imperative at this level; whilst goals win games, clean sheets win promotion – the top six sides have all conceded less that 36 goals.
To this end, Hay rightly says that the centre of defence needs to be bulked up and fortified. When Leeds United are losing their defensive heads, a calm figure of authority needs to step up to the mark – the kind that we don’t seem to have at the club at the moment.
In the centre of the park Leeds have an abundance of talent and potential, likely too much as the case may be. Choosing a four-man midfield is likely a nightmare at the moment with the Whites having to fill the four spots with a quartet from Lewis Cook, Liam Bridcutt, Alex Mowatt, Toumani Diagouraga, Stuart Dallas and Mustapha Carayol vying for the starting spots. That’s six players and not even counting those other midfielders that Leeds have in the squad.
However, Hay throws another footballing spanner in the works by saying that the Whites could very well benefit from a ‘number 10’, an attacking midfielder with drive and finesse. Hay says that Leeds have Lewis Cook who can perform as a box-to-box midfielder but he isn’t a ‘number 10′ with Hay adding that Leeds’ Cook is “lacking at present the killer passes expected of a number 10.”
The sort of player Leeds are looking at is a playmaker, someone like Brazilian Adryan – once on loan at Leeds, the type of player who can open up defences with pin-point executed passes and surging drives. Whilst Leeds won’t be back in for Adryan, there are other options that the Whites might look to consider as additions to their impressive midfield armoury.
Up top, Leeds either have £3m signing Chris Wood, powerful Souleymane Doukara or fleet-footed Mirco Antenucci as options; none of them have hit double figures this season with Antenucci (9) leading the way over Wood (5) and Doukara (3). Phil Hay focuses on the comparison of Antenucci to Nahki Wells in terms of their shots on target scores. Whilst Hay gets his number wrong a touch with saying Wells had 84 shots on target to Antenucci and Chris Wood’s combined 87, the point he makes is a valid one – Wells shoots more than the top two Leeds scorers and has almost as many goals as both of them – 16 to the Leeds duo’s combined 17.
If you want to look at conversion rates of goals from on-target shots then Chris Wood leads the way with 47%, Mirco Antenucci tops out with 41% and Nahki Wells trails in with 33%. However, it’s not the conversion rate that matters from on-target shots as much as conversion from on-target shots per game. Over a full season of 46 games: Wells would be a 20-goal a season striker (60 on-target shots at 1.3 per game and 33% conversion rate), Chris Wood would bring in 15 goals (33 on-target shots at 0.7 per game and 47% conversion rate) and Mirco Antenucci would net 13 goals (33 on-target shots at 0.7 per game and 41% conversion rate).
Put simply, Hay advocates a pacey and tricky addition to the Leeds United strikeforce, but not one where just speed is the key. As he says in his article, “they [Leeds] need a foil for him [Woods]; someone quick, mobile and focused on poaching goals.” Whether it be Wells or someone else such as Jason Cummings, Sam Winnall or a proven striker from elsewhere – the willingness to shoot is key in what is a very simple equation: shots – off-target shots = on-target shots + goals. Whilst it may not hold up to the scrutiny of a Maths professor from Oxford University, it really is that simple: shoot more, get more on target and you have a better chance of scoring goals.
