Leeds United boss Daniel Farke believes that forward Wilfried Gnonto can become a very important player at the club after the departures of Georginio Rutter and Crysencio Summerville.
Rutter departed to Brighton who triggered the Frenchman’s release clause for £40million just before it expired. Summerville also joined Premier League side West Ham United for £25million.
That means the Whites lost two key players who combined for 49 direct goal involvements last season.
Gnonto may be the key this season
Wilfried Gnonto contributed 10 goals and assists in the championship last season despite only starting 19 league games, with most of his appearances coming off the bench. The Italian forward scored in Leeds’ first game of the season against Portsmouth.
Daniel Farke hailed the player’s improvement this past weekend after Gnonto’s performance against Sheffield United:
“We’ve worked a lot with Willy in recent months,” “We want him to be more flexible in his movements, so he covers different positions and isn’t too static.
“We work a lot with him individually and show him different scenes. He was, at times, unplayable. He’s still a young player and can be a bit smarter to handle some situations on the pitch. A step forward from him but one we expect from a player of his calibre.”
Farke also said that the win against Sheffield Wednesday was Leeds United’s best performance of their season:
“It was definitely our best performance of the season.
“A next step forward, nearly a perfect away performance and I have to say I’m pretty, pretty pleased because today, more or less from the start, we were able to dominate this game.
“Also with our possession, as we were good in defence against West Brom, but our possession didn’t look good and we wanted to make the next step forward.
“I think we played today pretty, pretty brave and dominant against one of the best in form sides.”
There will be competition for Gnonto
Despite the departures of Rutter and Summerville, Gnonto will face competition to start in Daniel Farke’s team. With Daniel James having an impressive start to the season, and Brenden Aaronson scoring in two games, competition for the forward positions is intense.
Largie Ramazani has also joined from Almeria, with Burnley forward Manuel Benson set to follow. Daniel Farke spoke on the arrival of the Belgian forward Ramazani:
“Obviously, (from Saturday onwards, Ramazani) will train with us.
“It’s good we have Largie signed. I have made it clear we definitely need a few more if we want to be ambitious. Just with a squad of 12, 13 senior players, for this emotional and ambitious club to be successful, it’s not possible.
“We have a good group to build on. We showed (against Wednesday). But we will also need a few additions and then we speak about them when they have trained with us.”
