Leeds United spent more than £100m on transfers and added 10 new players to their promotion-winning squad from last season. However, an iffy start to the campaign and a lack of goals have put the recruitment strategy under the scanner early in the new season.
The 1-0 defeat at Fulham on Saturday was an unlucky result. Gabriel Gudmundsson scored an own goal in injury time in a game that Leeds did enough to get a point from. However, the defeat was also a result of the Whites being bereft of creativity, and that is down to their recruitment in the summer.
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Leeds signed Dominic Calvert-Lewin on a free transfer and winger Noah Okafor from AC Milan for £18m last month. They were the only two of the three attackers the club signed in the last transfer window.
Daniel Farke wanted to bring in two more forwards towards the end of the transfer window, and despite a deadline day move for Harry Wilson, they failed to add any more fresh attacking names to their squad.
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Leeds’ strategy to strengthen their defence and midfield early in the summer seemed like a smart strategy then, with the understanding that the big money on forwards would be spent later in the window.
Anton Stach and Sean Longstaff have emerged as strong players in midfield for Leeds. However, out of the four defenders signed, only Gabriel Gudmundsson is getting regular game time.
Jaka Bijol and Sebastiaan Bornauw have not made a league appearance due to Joe Rodon and Pascal Struijk’s performance, and while James Justin made a substitute appearance against Newcastle United, he is still back-up to the ever-reliable Jayden Bogle.
Bijol, Bornauw and Justin cost the club more than £30m, but the trio are unlikely to get regular game time this season unless someone gets injured.
Leeds can insist that they have strong squad options if something happens to their first-choice defenders. However, one theory is that you improve the squad by improving the starting eleven, and not bringing in more back-ups.
Bijol was seen as a starting eleven defender when he signed, but he is nowhere close to displacing either Rodon or Struijk in the team. His performances for Slovenia during the break have further raised doubts about his ability.
Nothing on a striker but £30m on back-ups?
Is it hard to predict that Daniel Farke will not change his defence if his first-choice defenders are fit? The Leeds manager loves consistency in selection, and the defence has done well this season.
Bijol, Bornauw and Justin will find it hard to get game time unless there are injuries, and Rodon, Struijk and Bogle are known for their durability as defenders.
Leeds insisted that they could not have done more to improve the squad. However, that leads to the simple query of why they spent £30m on back-up defenders when some of those funds could have gone towards adding at least one more attacker?
Adam Underwood and his recruitment team messed up their priorities and dropped the ball when it came to signing forwards in the summer.
It took them more than three weeks to sign Calvert-Lewin after Igor Paixao rejected Leeds’s offer to join Marseille towards the end of July.
Leeds fans still do not have an answer to where all the money went after their £30m+ bids for Paixao and Fulham’s Rodrigo Muniz were rejected.
The lack of goals and creativity in the team is a testament to the club’s poor planning in the summer, and apparently, they were plotting for more than six months.
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