DANIEL FARKE is hoping to have a stable of wingers who can offer him different qualities when the transfer window closes on Monday at 7pm.
Leeds United have spent more than £100m in this transfer window but their manager hopes he is not done yet, still looking for firepower wide and/or at centre-forward.
Players may have to move on to allow that, with Valencia said to be exploring a season-long loan for Largie Ramazani, and Werder Bremen interested in buying Isaac Schmidt, where previously a loan was floated.
As well as Ramazani, Leeds have Noah Okafor, Daniel James, Willy Gnonto, Jack Harrison (inset) and Brenden Aaronson as wide options.
DRIBBLER: Daniel James (Image: Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)placeholder image
DRIBBLER: Daniel James (Image: Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)
James and Gnonto have started Leeds’ two Premier League games, and Okafor and Aaronson kicked off at Sheffield Wednesday in the League Cup on Tuesday.
Although Farke sees versatility as crucial, he wants a group that give him different tactical options tailored to each game.
"It's important for all the wingers to be flexible," he stressed. "Nowadays you don't have a specialist winger who always plays on the right side or the left side.
"It's (partly about) the set-up of the opponent, which strength we want to use, a full-back who stays a bit deeper or goes higher, and you have to take this into account."
NO 10: Brenden Aaronson (image: Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)placeholder image
NO 10: Brenden Aaronson (image: Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)
How they play the position varies.
Farke noted: "We have different types now – wingers who can deliver lots of workload and are pretty disciplined against the ball, wingers with an X-factor, some very quick wingers good in one-against-ones, perhaps a No 10 type of winger who when we chase a game could interpret the No 10 role slightly differently to what we've done in pre-season."
Harrison favours his left foot and gives width and crossing on that side, as Marcelo Bielsa liked him to. That should play to Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s strengths when he is the centre-forward. Ditto, James, a speedy dribbler, on the right.
Gnonto is a right-footer who has played for Italy at centre-forward, so when on the left as in Leeds' first two matches, he is more about goal threat than assists. A tendency to drift inside opens space for an attacking full-back.
"DEFENSIVE WORKER": Jack Harrison (Image: Linnea Rheborg/Getty Images)placeholder image
"DEFENSIVE WORKER": Jack Harrison (Image: Linnea Rheborg/Getty Images)
James has played many times at centre-forward for club and country, but has only really become an effective goalscorer under Farke, who likes him on the right. He has 25 goals in two seasons – more than the previous seven.
Aaronson is a “No 10” – a player who floats centrally between midfield and attack – but Leeds' switch to 4-3-3 this season has seen him come on twice as a right winger.
There is another skill to consider, as Farke outlined when he explained why Harrison, who occasionally played wing-back for Bielsa and has been known to finish a game as an auxiliary full-back when his team is chasing a goal, was preferred on the bench to Ramazani at Arsenal.
Harrison, he said, was a "more solid defensive worker" – not to be under-estimated against sides as strong as the Gunners.