Leeds United are marching towards securing automatic promotion to the Premier League with eleven games left in the Championship campaign. Despite the 1-1 draw at home against West Brom last weekend, not many are expecting the Whites to miss out on promotion. Leeds are expected to play in the Premier League next season, and the club will likely carry out an overhaul of their squad in the summer. Leeds need better quality players to survive in the top flight but having a good transfer window is only half the battle. Former striker Alan Smith has insisted that Leeds might need to tweak the way they play if they have to keep themselves up in the Premier League.
The struggles of the promoted team in the Premier League this season have provided a window to the widening gulf that exists between the top flight and the Championship.
Leicester and Ipswich were so good that even a 90-point season from Leeds was not good enough for automatic promotion and Southampton beat the Whites in the playoff final to book their place in the Premier League.
However, all three sides are now favourites to go down with Leicester and Southampton almost certain to get relegated from the Premier League this season.
Leeds are expected to go up as Championship winners but given the trend in recent seasons, they will be early favourites to come straight back down.
The Yorkshire giants need to have a flawless transfer window to give themselves half a chance but Smith feels there is one more thing the Whites need to ensure next season if they want to survive.
Leeds United just need to find a way to stay up – Alan Smith
Daniel Farke’s sides are known for playing beautiful eye-catching football and Leeds have been the entertainers of the season in the Championship.
However, Farke’s record in the Premier League is woeful and there are question marks over whether he can adapt his style to survive in the top flight.
The former Leeds striker stressed that the Whites need to be ready to look horrible and need not necessarily play pretty football to ensure that they remain in the Premier League.
Smith insisted that if Leeds find a way to survive in their first season, they will have a base to build on and have more leeway to establish themselves in the top flight.
“I think Leeds have just got to find a way to stay up, and it might not be pretty and it might be horrible, but if you stay up for a year and build”, the ex-Leeds star told the Football League World.
“The stats show that if you stay up for two or three years, you will be up for a long time.
“The gap is getting bigger between the teams that stay up and the teams that go up.”
Leeds need not be wary of looking ugly to survive in the Premier League
Promotion has yet to be secured and Farke and his players still have a lot of work to carry out before they can celebrate going up to the Premier League.
However, it is becoming increasingly clear that the job of survival in the Premier League would be very different from the job of getting promoted to the top flight.
The gulf has never been wider between the top two tiers of English football and promoted teams are finding it increasingly harder to stay up.
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Promoted teams who are looking to stick to their style and play pretty football have struggled against far better quality sides in the top flight, and Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds side in the 2020/21 season were an outlier.
It would be great if Leeds could still stick to their ethos and survive. However, Farke must not shy away from changing it up and ensuring that his team are hard to beat first once they go up.
Leeds need to be ready to look horrible and ugly in their quest for points, as playing good football and still losing games has not worked out for Ipswich this season.
