Leeds United’s summer recruitment is facing serious criticism, but there is one signing that is looking more baffling with each passing day, as it seems clear that other areas of the squad, especially the front line, were ignored in the last window.
The 1-0 defeat at Fulham on Saturday has opened a Pandora’s box at Leeds. Despite the unlucky nature of the loss, the team and the club’s recruitment are facing criticism for the lack of distinct creativity and goals.
Leeds have not scored another since their win at Everton, and have not netted from open play yet this season. Dominic Calvert-Lewin has looked rusty, and Lukas Nmecha has huffed and puffed with nothing to show for it other than the penalty against the Toffees.
The duo’s recent record suggests that Leeds are going to find it hard to score goals regularly. However, all the criticism around the team’s attack has managed to hide the fact that one of their key summer signings was missing at Craven Cottage.
Can you name these 10 former Leeds United defenders?
Leeds United’s summer signing was nowhere to be seen at Fulham
Leeds sporting director Adam Underwood is under fire after a summer recruitment process that looked muddled, with several blunders made along the way.
The Whites have signed £30m worth of back-up defenders for a manager who has never shown any interest in changing his defence unless forced.
One could argue that the squad needed a backup centre-back and a full-back. However, another defender was signed, and he is nowhere to be seen at the moment.
Leeds paid a fee worth £5.2m to sign Sebastiaan Bornauw from Wolfsburg, but other than the EFL Cup defeat against Sheffield Wednesday, he has not come close to getting into the team.
The Belgian was an unused substitute in the first three Premier League games, and was not even in the squad at Craven Cottage last weekend.
There is no suggestion that the defender is recovering from an injury, and it doesn’t seem he will see any minutes any time soon, with Bijol ahead of him in the pecking order.
Underwood’s squad planning under fire
Leeds were always going to have a limited transfer budget, so they needed every penny spent to be on the pitch, given their needs and requirements in the Premier League.
While Bijol and James Justin’s arrival can still be justified, it is hard to see where Bornauw is going to get any minutes under Farke this season.
£5.2m may seem irrelevant in a league where the British transfer record was broken twice in the same summer by the same club; the figure is still considerable for a club such as Leeds.
Given his involvement, it’s clear he is not seen as anything more than a squad filler and that raises the question of whether Leeds needed another such player.
Good teams strengthen by upgrading the quality of players in the starting eleven, not by adding squad fillers who are never likely to play.
In a summer where the Leeds squad were left short in attack, the club’s spending considerable money on back-up defenders must be fiercely questioned.
Some of us questioned it at the time and were called negative for daring to state the obvious.
Despite our spending, Rodon and Struijk are still the best defenders at the club.
Willy and Ramazani are still the best two wingers we have/had. Despite Stach being passable, Tanaka is still the best midfielder and had we not released Bamford he’d be the only player we would of had capable of playing up front.
No one at the club can take a penalty or a corner or a free kick.
They haven’t backed Farke, he’s gonna be sacked and unless we spend a billion in January there will be no chance of survival. Bring it on! MOT
Remove Adam Underwood and his team because he was never good in his job this current season and never will be even for next season. Even Victor Otega or Angus was much better. Paraag Marathe better wise up or ship out to another buyer who can show more ambition than him. Its all cheap talk from the start about spending every penny on the team. There’s a saying – Don’t wear a big hat if you don’t have such a big head.