Leeds United may have won against West Ham United on Friday, but there should still be concerns for Daniel Farke, especially with Dominic Calvert-Lewin.
It was a big win for Leeds United at Elland Road, but they made life far harder for themselves than was required in the 2-1 victory over West Ham United.
Daniel Farke’s side were under pressure to respond after last weekend’s defeat to Burnley and couldn’t have got off to a better start, with goals from Brenden Aaronson and Joe Rodon seeing them race into the lead.
Leeds began to cut through a rocked West Ham at will and looked destined to make it a slaughter. Yet, their familiar lack of cutting edge returned.
The Hammers got their act together in the second half and dominated the ball as they threatened the goal. They didn’t pull one back until right at the end, leaving just four minutes of nerves.
If they’d have scored one a bit earlier, the result might have been very different.
As Farke says, no Premier League game is easy but this one should have been. Leeds’ issues once again stemmed from a lack of ruthlessness in attack and that stems from Dominic Calvert-Lewin.
Daniel Farke and Dominic Calvert-Lewin applaud Leeds fans.
Photo by Mike Morese/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Dominic Calvert-Lewin puts in a limp performance against West Ham
Calvert-Lewin is proving to be a good signing for Leeds and is doing a lot of positive work. That has to go front and centre.
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In a team that is not going to have the majority of the ball in most games, Calvert-Lewin has the thankless task of leading the line, running the channels, challenging defenders, holding up the ball and dragging Leeds up the field.
It’s hard work, and he does it well.
Yet, a striker needs to be scoring, too, and if not, he at least needs to be threatening to do so. Worrying defenders, going close.
Calvert-Lewin registered just one shot all game against West Ham, and that could hardly count, as it was an attempted scorpion kick that flew high into the Elland Road faithful.
He was far too quiet in this match, even in the first half when Leeds were carving West Ham open time and again.
The big question is, if he is so quiet and doesn’t even come close to scoring against the worst defence Leeds will face all season, who will he ever score against?
That has to be a huge concern for Farke, surely?
Daniel Farke must consider dropping Dominic Calvert-Lewin
Farke is a loyal manager and stands by his players. It usually takes a shocking result for real changes to finally be made.
Illan Meslier hung on for far longer than he should have last season, and it was only after his catastrophe against Swansea City threatened an automatic promotion place that he was finally dropped after a season of errors.
Likewise, Farke has, injuries permitting, stuck by his starting XI this season, but the loss at Burnley resulted in four changes for West Ham, all of which had an impact.
So, it’s unlikely that Calvert-Lewin is going to be dropped, especially after a big win.
But Farke has to start considering a change, at least a rotation, to see if anything else can work.
Joel Piroe might not be good enough for the Premier League, but he hasn’t even had a chance to try and prove it yet after netting 19 times last season.
Piroe’s all-around play might not be as sharp as Calvert-Lewin’s, but he is in much better scoring form and deserves the opportunity to at least see if he can continue that at the highest level.
He certainly can’t score any less.