Leeds United have lower than per week to arrange for his or her opening sport of the 2025/26 Premier League marketing campaign in opposition to Everton at Elland Highway subsequent Monday.
Regardless of how shut the primary sport is, head coach Daniel Farke just isn’t happy with the work that has been carried out on the attacking areas in the summertime switch window.
The previous Norwich Metropolis boss clearly desires to herald extra attackers to bolster his choices on the prime finish of the pitch earlier than the deadline initially of September.
Soccer Insider reported in Might that the Whites usually are not planning to construct their assault round Joel Piroe, even though he received the Golden Boot within the Championship with 19 targets.
Leeds are out there, as Farke confirmed, to herald reinforcements within the ultimate third, and a brand new centre-forward to compete with the Dutch marksman is on the agenda.
The Championship champions might be hoping that they will discover their subsequent profitable Premier League quantity 9, following within the footsteps of the likes of Mark Viduka and Tony Yeboah.
Leeds United’s all-time prime scorers within the Premier League
The Whites haven’t been within the top-flight for a few years since they have been relegated beneath Sam Allardyce on the finish of the 2022/23 marketing campaign.
From that run of three successive seasons within the Premier League, following their promotion beneath Marcelo Bielsa in 2020, just one participant managed to interrupt into the membership’s prime ten goalscorers within the historical past of the division – Rodrigo.
The Spaniard scored 26 targets in 88 matches in three seasons in West Yorkshire after his transfer from Valencia in the summertime of 2020, outscoring Raphinha in that interval within the membership’s historical past.
Leeds United’s all-time Premier League prime scorers | ||
|---|---|---|
Participant | Appearances | Targets |
Mark Viduka | 130 | 59 |
Harry Kewell | 181 | 45 |
Rod Wallace | 178 | 42 |
Alan Smith | 172 | 38 |
Lee Bowyer | 203 | 38 |
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink | 69 | 34 |
Brian Deane | 138 | 32 |
Ian Harte | 213 | 28 |
Rodrigo | 88 | 26 |
Tony Yeboah | 47 | 24 |
By way of StatMuse | ||
As you may see within the desk above, no participant has scored extra Premier League targets for Leeds than Viduka, who was a battering ram up entrance for the Whites throughout his time in West Yorkshire.
The Australian centre-forward combined bodily and technical qualities to be an excellent quantity 9 for the Whites, as Guardian author Rob Smyth as soon as famous that he had an “fascinating mixture of kinds” because of his energy and talent on the ball.
Leeds are actually being linked with a possible transfer for a participant who may arrive at Elland Highway with an identical model of play to the legendary striker.
Leeds have rising curiosity in Championship star
Based on TEAMtalk, Leeds United are one of many groups with a rising curiosity in a deal for Norwich Metropolis centre-forward Josh Sargent earlier than the top of the summer time switch window.
The report claims that each the Whites and Burnley are eager to snap up the USA worldwide, who wish to stay in England, to bolster their choices on the prime finish of the pitch.
It provides that the 25-year-old quantity 9 has already turned down the prospect to signal for Wolfsburg after the German membership agreed a £21m cope with the Canaries, which reveals the type of cash that it’ll take to do a deal.
TEAMtalk reveals that Farke is an enormous fan of the American striker, whom he signed for Norwich from Werder Bremen in 2021, and wish to reunite with him this summer time.
Nevertheless, the outlet claims that Leeds and Burnley usually are not presently keen to pay the asking value for the Championship star, and it stays to be seen the place this switch saga will go subsequent.
Why Leeds ought to signal Josh Sargent
The pure response to this information from supporters will not be essentially the most constructive, provided that Sargent struggled within the Premier League when he final performed there within the 2021/22 marketing campaign. Nevertheless, he was a 21-year-old taking part in in England for the primary time in a group that obtained relegated from the division, and nearly all of his appearances for Norwich got here on the suitable wing, moderately than as a centre-forward.
Since their relegation to the Championship, and Teemu Pukki’s exit from Carrow Highway, the USA worldwide has had the prospect to determine himself in his favoured place, as a striker, and caught the attention along with his wonderful performances.
Sargent received Norwich’s Participant of the Season award final season, due to the targets and assists proven within the video above, and has scored 32 Championship targets for the reason that begin of the 2023/24 marketing campaign, as per Sofascore.
That’s the reason supporters shouldn’t be postpone by a haul of two targets in 26 matches within the Premier League in troublesome circumstances over three years in the past, as his type since then reveals that he has the potential to be Viduka 2.0 for Leeds.
This isn’t to say that Sargent is assured to attain targets as ceaselessly as Viduka did for the Whites, given his distinctive report, however he has the all-round sport and ending capabilities to be Farke’s personal model of the striker.
24/25 Championship | Josh Sargent | Percentile rank vs STs |
|---|---|---|
xG | 13.32 | Prime 5% |
Targets | 15 | Prime 3% |
Pictures on the right track | 30 | Prime 9% |
xA | 3.17 | Prime 8% |
Assists | 5 | Prime 8% |
Profitable dribbles | 16 | Prime 20% |
Duel success fee | 42.6% | Prime 16% |
Aerial duel success fee | 35.6% | Prime 36% |
Stats by way of FotMob | ||
As you may see within the desk above, the £21m-rated ahead has developed right into a talismanic determine for the Canaries within the quantity 9 place, rating extremely amongst his positional friends in a number of metrics out and in of possession.
Sargent, who Tony Pulis described as “relentless”, has the bodily qualities to win duels on the deck and within the air to be a goal man for his facet, very like Viduka was for Leeds, while additionally being a prolific scorer and creator in entrance of purpose.
These statistics recommend that the potential is there for him to be a Viduka-esque determine up entrance for Leeds as a result of he’s a technically safe goal man who finishes probabilities clinically and creates for others.
It’s now down for Sargent, if the Whites strike a deal for him, to point out that he can translate that to the Premier League when performed in his most well-liked place at that degree.
