Leeds United have made a solid start to life back in the Premier League. They sit 15th on eight points, and have looked more competitive and resilient than most promoted teams from recent years.
Daniel Farke has built a Leeds team focused on defensive and midfield solidity, and their recruitment in the summer showed that they were always going to be a very physical side in the Premier League this season.
The Whites have done better than what was expected of them at the start of the season. However, there is an argument to suggest that they should have been higher up the table.
Leeds’ results have not matched their performance metrics at the start of the campaign, and that is down to them not making the most of their goal-scoring opportunities.
Leeds United must realise that scoring goals will keep them in the Premier League
A strong defence and a resolute midfield are essential to ensure that promoted teams do not get blown away, like in recent seasons, and Leeds have done well to compete.
However, they have only scored seven goals this season, and have been guilty of being very wasteful in front of the net in the opening exchanges.
Goals ultimately decide the fate of teams in the Premier League, and former scout Bryan King admitted that Leeds will have to score more to boost their chances of survival in the top flight this season.
“It’s a whole different ball game from the Championship to the Premier League”, King told MOT Leeds News.
“The pace of the game is different, the defenders are a lot better now, and you’ve seen over the past few years how teams that win promotion have problems staying up.
“If they don’t score goals, they aren’t going to win matches, and that’s what leads to these teams going up and then coming down again.
“When you step up from the Championship, players are expected to do more. I look at Leeds and I think, ‘Are they really good enough to stay in the Premier League?’ And I don’t think they are.”
History suggests Leeds will have to score more
A cursory look at the Premier League table from recent years suggests that the teams that went down invariably struggled to score regularly in the top flight.
Southampton, Ipswich Town, and Leicester City were the lowest scorers of the Premier League last season and were the ones who got relegated back to the Championship.
Despite finding the net more often than Forest and Everton, Luton couldn’t avoid relegation, joining Burnley and Sheffield United, the league’s lowest scorers, in going down from the Premier League in 2023/24.
However, the 2022/23 season was different. Leeds went down despite vastly outscoring as many as seven teams, who survived in the Premier League.
They paid for a poor defence and a disorganised midfield, and Farke’s insistence on improving their solidity this season is understandable.
However, more often than not, scoring goals has been an important feature of teams managing to survive in the Premier League this season.
Can you name these 10 former Leeds United defenders?
