A quiet month may be what Daniel Farke wants when the transfer window opens in four weeks, but Leeds United performances like Saturday’s only leave you looking, longingly, at what else may be out there. When talent like Manor Solomon, Largie Ramazani and Mateo Joseph is being benched, United’s squad does not leap out as one with an urgent need for another attacker sitting in the dugout.
However, six points in the last six away games and a series of ineffective performances from Brenden Aaronson, do bring a summer debate back to the table. It’s a debate Farke, chief executive Angus Kinnear and the recruitment department were having themselves in August.
Gustavo Hamer and Emiliano Buendia were discussed as additions for a reason and they ended the window without an additional playmaker. Kinnear and Farke would both say Joel Piroe and their existing wide players could do a job as number 10s, Joe Rothwell too, who may soon be ousted from the engine room by Ethan Ampadu.
So, realistically, between now and January 1, unless the team’s form tanks to a single-digit points return over the next six or a forward suffers a long-term injury, it’s hard to see them hunting for a new option. Every year, Kinnear and others will talk up the difficulty of the winter window, the lack of available, effective players and the extortionate prices being charged.
Do not forget the condition so many Premier League clubs have scared Leeds off with in recent windows either: a play or pay clause on loan deals for their best young talent. When they see the likes of Solomon or Ramazani on the bench, only the most confident players are going to fancy their chances of regular minutes.
While those scenarios may resemble something like January’s reality, it would not even need to be debated if Aaronson was delivering a better end product in the final third. In a match like Saturday’s, with so many of United’s players off their best, they could have done with some ingenuity or flair from that playmaker's pocket.
Last week’s results, performances and rotations on the flanks had opened the debate up on Aaronson’s position, on whether one of Farke’s in-form wingers should take that central slot. Saturday was the meek footnote the American’s difficult week ended on and it just pushes the door open to that January argument once again.
Better results, and especially displays from Aaronson, between now and New Year’s Day should quieten it down. The ball’s in his and the team’s court.
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