The countdown to Crysencio Summerville’s departure from Elland Road started the moment the final whistle blew in the playoff final at Wembley. The Leeds United players were down in the dumps as their Southampton counterparts celebrated getting promoted to the Premier League. A 90-point season meant nothing as the Whites failed to cross the final hurdle and were condemned to one more season at least in the Championship.
After scoring 20 goals and registering nine assists in the Championship, Summerville was never going to stick around for one more year in the second tier of English football.
With several clubs in the Premier League showing an interest in him, it was only a matter of time before he left last summer and West Ham signed him from the Whites.
Leeds knew they would be losing the Dutchman the moment they failed to get promoted and plans were in place to ensure they could soften the blow of losing their best player from last season.
The Whites brought in Largie Ramazani and Manor Solomon and managed to hold on to Wilfried Gnonto despite serious interest from Everton in the last transfer window.
There were questions about how Leeds would replace the goals scored by Summerville but they have fired back by being the highest goalscorers in the Championship going into the New Year.
Daniel Farke tweaked the way Leeds played to ensure that they remained a potent attacking threat this season despite losing their best attacker from the previous campaign.
How Leeds United coped without Summerville
Daniel Farke had several challenges ahead of the start of the new season. He was tasked with rebuilding the squad after losing three big players, including Summerville, and lifting the morale of the players who went so close to getting promoted last season before failing at the final hurdle.
The Leeds United manager also had to find a way to replace the goals Summerville scored. Joel Piroe is not a prolific goalscorer, Mateo Joseph is still unproven and Patrick Bamford’s injuries have diminished him physically.
Leeds didn’t even sign a striker and there were serious questions about where the goals would come from to fire Leeds’ promotion charge before the season commenced.
However, the Whites are now the top goalscorers in the Championship without requiring any of their attackers to get into double figures at this stage of the season.
Joel Piroe is the top goalscorer with nine but other players around him have chipped in with significant numbers to ensure Leeds are not missing Summerville.
Brenden Aaronson has picked up his scoring rate and has taken his tally for the season to seven league goals. Daniel James and Wilfried Gnonto have scored five and four times respectively.
Right-back Jayden Bogle has chipped in with three goals with Largie Ramazani and Mano Solomon also scoring the same number of strikes.
Centre-back Pascal Struijk has netted twice this season and defenders Joe Rodon, Junior Firpo, Max Wober and Sam Byram have chipped in with one goal each.
Can the Whites continue to cope without a prolific goalscorer?
Leeds have done well to ensure that the goals get spread across the squad following the sale of Summerville and they have managed to survive without a forward racking up prolific numbers.
The over-dependence on Summerville to score the goals last season eventually cost Leeds promotion as the goals dried up for the Dutchman towards the end of the season.
Farke has ensured that Leeds have more solutions in attack this season and they are not dependent on one or two players to bail them out all the time.
However, Leeds do lack a goalscorer of serious repute who will bang in the goals in games when they are not playing well to ensure they still get the points they need.
We have argued that Piroe could be the man for Leeds in the latter half of the season if the Whites ensure that they play to his strengths rather than ask him to do things that he is not comfortable with.
Most teams who end up getting promoted have a player or two who are 20-goal strikers but for the moment, Leeds do not seem to have that prolific number 9.
They will have to continue to ensure that most of their forwards continue to chip in with goals to ensure they find ways to win games and earn the points needed for automatic promotion.
