Leeds United come back from the international break to return to action in the Championship this afternoon as they prepare to welcome Swansea City to Elland Road.
The Whites have had a two-week break from their attempts to secure an automatic return to the Premier League at the second time of asking, giving Daniel Farke and his staff a chance to reflect on the run-in and how they want to approach the final games.
They have only won one of their last four league matches, drawing two and losing one, and were held to a 2-2 draw by Queens Park Rangers in their last game.
The West Yorkshire outfit are three points behind Sheffield United, who beat Coventry City last night, and are only two points ahead of Burnley in third, which means that it is all still to play for in the race for promotion.
Farke may have to go into this clash with Swansea at Elland Road without the player who sealed all three points in the dramatic clash between the two teams when they met in Wales earlier this season.
The latest Leeds United injury news
Firstly, there was some positive news to come from the pre-match press conference as it was revealed that captain Ethan Ampadu will be in the squad after coming back from his knee issue.
Farke stated that Max Wober and Patrick Bamford are also making good progress with their respective injury issues, but they are not expected to be in the squad to face the Swans today.
The German head coach also confirmed that Wilfried Gnonto is suffering from an ankle injury and only has a 50% chance of being available for selection.
This will come as a blow to Leeds because the Italy U21 international, who scored the winner in the reverse fixture against Swansea, came on at half-time against QPR and made a positive impact.
Leeds were 2-1 down when Gnonto was brought on as a number ten and he played a terrific pass to split open the QPR defence in the build-up to Jayden Bogle’s equaliser.
The former Inter prospect, who has scored five league goals this season, came on to replace Brenden Aaronson at the break, but may now not be available to take his place from the start due to this injury.
Why Brenden Aaronson should be dropped
Despite Gnonto’s potential unavailability, Farke must finally drop the USA international from the starting line-up because of his poor form in the attacking midfield role for the club in recent weeks.
Aaronson was withdrawn after 45 minutes against QPR after a dismal half of football. He lost four of his five ground duels, completed 60% of his attempted passes, and his only involvement in a goal was to play a loose pass straight to their player for the home team’s opening strike.
The American dud has produced one goal and zero assists in his last 14 league matches for the club, and his form against the top teams in the league illustrates his struggles at the top end of the pitch.
West Brom (A)
0
0
Burnley (H)
0
0
Sunderland (A)
0
0
Sheffield United (H)
0
0
Coventry (H)
0
0
Coventry (A)
0
0
Burnley (A)
0
0
Sunderland (H)
0
0
Sheffield United (A)
0
0
West Brom (H)
0
0
As you can see in the table above, Aaronson has – quite simply – offered very little to the team against the other five teams currently situated in the top six, with no goal contributions in ten games.
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His form in front of goal, recently and in the big matches, has not been good enough and Farke should look to find a solution within his squad, starting with this game against Swansea, by bringing Mateo Joseph in.
Why Mateo Joseph should be unleashed
If Gnonto, due to his ankle injury, is not fit enough to start then the Spain U21 international should be brought in to see if he can take a chance to impress as part of a dynamic front two with Joel Piroe, playing slightly behind the Dutchman as a number ten.
Joseph has only started 11 of his 36 appearances in the Championship this season, and eight of those starts came in the first eight matches, which means that he has not had too many opportunities to shine as a starter since the opening weeks of the campaign.
As you can see in the clip above, the Spanish whiz does have the quality and vision to pick out good passes, as he did for Dan James against Sheffield Wednesday earlier in the season.
Joseph, therefore, has the potential to be a good option in the number ten position in place of the underperforming Aaronson and in the absence of Gnonto, which is backed up by his statistics this term.
Assists
0.21
Top 14%
Expected Assisted Goals
0.14
Top 17%
Non-penalty xG + Expected Assisted Goals
0.50
Top 26%
Shot-creating actions
2.36
Top 19%
Passes into the final third
1.07
Top 23%
Passes into the penalty area
0.79
Top 13%
Progressive passes
1.64
Top 31%
As you can see in the table above, the 21-year-old forward ranks incredibly highly among his positional peers at a number of key creative and passing metrics.
This suggests that the young star, who was described as “dynamite” by U23 scout Antonio Mango, has the technical and creative qualities that could make him an effective number ten for Leeds against Swansea this afternoon.
Given Aaronson’s underperformance in recent weeks, unleashing Joseph in this role could be an interesting short-term solution to the team’s issues in that position whilst Gnonto gets back to 100% after his ankle injury.
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