DANIEL Farke knows forward Dominic Calvert-Lewin will be crucial to Leeds' survival bid.
A stoppage-time own-goal by Gabriel Gundmundsson consigned newly promoted Leeds to a 1-0 loss at Fulham on Saturday when the visitors would have been full value for a point and third straight clean sheet.
Fulham's late winner meant Farke fielded questions about a failure to score in three league fixtures in a row, but he backed one-time England forward Calvert-Lewin to solve their goalscoring issue.
"I'm pleased to have Dominic. More than 250 Premier League games, more than 60 goals, England caps, goals for England. If he would have been in his best shape in the last two years, he wouldn't be a free agent," Farke said.
"You never normally get a player of his calibre at a newly promoted team because it's these types of players, quality players, that are never out of contract. We are pretty blessed we got him.
"Of course we need a bit of patience. He was only ready to start now, first start under his belt and he will just grow from there because he's an excellent striker.
"He has also shown what he can do if he stays fit and stays with this consistency. He will need to play a crucial role for our survival bid. We need him in top form and top shape in order to achieve our goals."
Farke pulled no punches after Leeds lost to Fulham and insisted pragmatism will help keep them up.
He added: "No disrespect to my players but Willy Gnonto, Daniel James, Jack Harrison, Brenden Aaronson, they were all with us two-and-a-half-years ago when we were relegated from the Premier League and they were all called hopeless and not good enough.
"This is the reality and they were of course outstanding on Championship level, but right now they still have a point to prove that all these labels and all this judgement is not right.
"We know we don't have the best individual quality in this league so we have to come with other skills.
"The importance of being rock-solid on the defending, not giving any chances away and keeping clean sheets will be even more important than in the Championship."
Fulham were indebted to £34.6million deadline-day signing Kevin to provide the impetus for a first league win of the season.
Marco Silva resisted the urge to start the former Shakhtar Donetsk attacker and left AC Milan loanee Samuel Chukwueze out of the squad completely.
Silva explained: "It was almost impossible for Chukwueze to be involved in this game.
"He probably doesn't know the name of all his team-mates, he signed with us in the last day of the market, went to the national team, arrived last Thursday and he had two sessions with the players and that is just an example.
"The players need time. Time to adapt, time to find a simple thing like a house so they don't live in a hotel for months. Kevin is in this process as well."