Injuries have only highlighted the area of need, and so have recent results for Leeds United
Isaac Johnson Leeds United reporter
07:00, 05 Nov 2025
Daniel Farke might want to look at the January market
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Daniel Farke might ultimately want to look at the January market(Image: Harry Murphy/Getty Images)
The final piece of the jigsaw is missing and that gap is getting harder to ignore. The full picture feels incomplete.
The Leeds United recruitment team were disappointed not to get a final right winger over the line but felt they had enough depth on the flanks to survive. Of course, that will only be judged correct or incorrect in May but supporters are fearful of where things are headed.
Few saw Brenden Aaronson being the player to have got most minutes on the right wing so far. The injuries to Daniel James and Wilfried Gnonto have only highlighted the last-gasp transfer failure.
The result of that has been frustration from the terraces and a notable imbalance in attack. Left winger Noah Okafor has shown what he can do since his £18million arrival from AC Milan.
It is the Swiss who feels like the biggest attacking threat at the moment, and his two goals as joint-top scorer makes the case for that. He too has also highlighted the dearth of output on the other flank.
The central attacking signings, Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Lukas Nmecha, were both free agents. They have two goals between them in 800 Premier League minutes.
What isn’t helping is the lack of service to the front line. Daniel Farke has often underlined that his team does not have the individual quality to compete with most Premier League clubs so needs to be better at the other stuff - togetherness, fitness, cohesion.
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There is a sense of team unity and fitness isn't bad but cohesion sometimes is left wanting. The transition between defence and midfield to the attack has been absent at times. There is a word that has often come up as a result - creativity.
Leeds wanted a right winger who could play inside as a number 10, someone creative and able to turn imagination into end product. Whether the answer really was Facundo Buonanotte or Harry Wilson is questionable.
But either would have bolstered current options. The Leeds recruitment seemed to think so having dipped for both in the final week of the window.
As time goes on, that final piece of the jigsaw is becoming more of a glaring need. The two players to have created the most actions that have led to shots are central midfielders - Anton Stach and Sean Longstaff.
Stach and Aaronson lead the list for actions that have led to goals (three each). While the pair can be applauded it’s also a worrying sign when the eye-test is factored in. Clearly, Leeds need more than this.
United are aiming for a point per game as an average and should they dip far below that line then January reinforcement becomes a must, even if that will mean creating more headspace before the end of June amid their PSR limit.
There are still a lot of factors that come into play before then, including eight more games. Yet as things stand right now, the balance of probabilities suggest the winter market will have to be utilised.
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