Farke must drop Leeds flop who lost possession 17x

Leeds United continued their unbeaten start to the Premier League season under Daniel Farke with a 1-1 draw against Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday afternoon.

Luka Vuskovic’s equaliser cancelled out an opening goal from Jayden Bogle in the first-half, as the Whites were left to rue several big chances missed throughout the game.

Too many chances went begging for the away side as they failed to grab a second goal to put the game to bed, which opened the door for Brighton to equalise in the second half.

The West Yorkshire outfit did make moves to strengthen their attack in the summer window, but new signing Harry Wilson has yet to make his mark for the club.

Why Harry Wilson struggled against Brighton

The Wales international was initially named on the bench for this clash with Brighton because Farke opted to start with a 3-5-2 formation, beefing up his midfield behind a front two of Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Noah Okafor.

Wilson came on for the final 17 minutes, plus stoppage time, as Leeds were chasing a winning goal, and he failed to impact the match in a positive way.

His early performances for the Whites suggest that he lacks the physicality and pace to star in Farke’s side, which was the case in the draw with the Seagulls this weekend.

He came off the pitch with almost as many fouls as passes completed for Leeds, whilst his duel success rate on the ground and in the air speaks to a lack of natural physicality.

Action Images via Reuters/Andrew Boyers

Wilson has yet to deliver a goal or an assist for his new club, since a summer switch from Fulham, and his continued struggles with the physical side of the game appear to be impacting his ability to showcase his quality on the ball.

The Leeds flop who was even worse than Harry Wilson

Whilst the Welsh attacker only came off the bench for the final 17 minutes of the draw, one of the players who started the game for Leeds was even worse.

The switch to a 3-5-2 formation by Farke meant that three central midfielders were selected to start, including Ethan Ampadu, Ao Tanaka, and Anton Stach.

Tanaka caught the eye with a clever assist for Bogle’s goal after Calvert-Lewin missed a big chance, and Ampadu put in a solid shift as the more defensive-minded of the three.

Meanwhile, Stach failed to impress in his box-to-box role for the Whites. His use of the ball throughout the match was not good enough, as he was wasteful in possession for the away side.

Action Images via Reuters/Jason Cairnduff

He had one of the biggest chances to win the game for Leeds when the ball broke loose for him on the right side of the box, but he hit his low shot straight at Bart Verbruggen, when he should have found the far corner of the goal.

On top of not taking his chance to score, Stach also rarely created anything for his teammates at the top end of the pitch, ending the game with one chance created.

Only one of his seven crosses found a teammate and he gave the ball away 32% of the time when he attempted to make a pass, showing that he was far too loose with the ball at his feet.

Farke admitted that he has been pleased with the team’s start to the campaign after the draw against Brighton, but he may not be too pleased with how Stach played.

The German giant was even worse than Wilson, because of his big miss and all-round disappointing play as a starter, and should be one of the players dropped for the Premier League clash with Newcastle United next weekend.

Wilson, at least, only had 17 minutes to make an impact on the match, whilst Stach played the full 90 minutes. In fact, the Welshman even created more chances (two) than the German (one), which speaks to the former Hoffenheim star’s lack of quality in the final third.

Farke should now consider ruthlessly dropping the 6 foot 4 star from the starting line-up in order to move back to a 3-4-2-1 formation to bring Jean-Matteo Bahoya in for a league debut as part of a front three.