Leeds United will be aiming to get back to winning ways this weekend in the Championship when Wayne Rooney’s Plymouth Argyle come town, having been left wanting more from their last game away at Bristol City.
The goal-shy Whites had to make do with a 0-0 draw against Liam Manning’s Robins, despite registering 17 attempts on the busy home goal, as the Elland Road faithful now worry more blanks could be fired versus the Pilgrims.
The task facing Daniel Farke’s side is going to be made harder with Largie Ramazani ruled out with an injury for this clash, with the Belgian winger standing out as a top performer this season for Leeds, before injury disaster struck recently.
Leeds' best performers this season in attack
Before going down with an early injury at home to Watford this October, Ramazani was beginning to make waves in the first team ranks at the promotion-chasing side, with a promising three goals notched up from eight Championship appearances.
His replacement in Manor Solomon for the game against the Hornets hasn’t exactly set the world alight in his place either, with only one on-target effort versus Watford registered, which resulted in Farke only giving him 19 minutes of action off the bench away in Bristol.
Farke will also be praying that Mateo Joseph finds his shooting boots again tomorrow to face off against Plymouth, with the Spanish striker blowing hot and cold as of late, away from firing home this big strike against Sheffield United in the middle of the month to secure a 2-0 win.
That was only the Leeds academy product’s second strike of the campaign, but there will be high hopes he can be the leading man the Whites need in their pursuit to win promotion, having also proven his worth with three assists.
There are already rumours circulating that Leeds are looking at bringing in more attackers soon, with the door open for the second tier side to bring in some loanees this January if needs be, with this former Whites loan player seeing his transfer value shoot up since leaving Elland Road behind.
Eddie Nketiah's value since leaving Leeds
Eddie Nketiah has a Championship winners medal scattered amongst his career accolades, with the 25-year-old once a promising young attacker cutting his teeth at Leeds under Marcelo Bielsa.
The unassuming 5 foot 9 forward would help himself to five goals from 19 appearances playing for the Whites, going on to lift the second tier title subsequently at the close of the memorable 2019/20 season, alongside Leeds greats such as Kalvin Phillips and Patrick Bamford.
Club played for
Games played
Goals scored
Assists
Leeds
19
5
1
Arsenal
168
38
7
Crystal Palace
7
1
0
Only worth around the £6.7m mark when first joining the Whites, Nketiah would use this formative loan switch as a springboard to launch himself into the main first-team fold at Arsenal, with the London-born striker going on to make 168 appearances in total for the Gunners and scoring 38 times.
He might not have lived up to all the hype that surrounded him as a youngster at the Emirates – with journalist James Olley once describing Nketiah as “remarkable” in 2017 when he was starting to be tipped for greatness – but his value would significantly rise up from the £6.7m he was once worth.
As of May this year, Transfermarkt estimated that the new Crystal Palace number nine’s value was now at a far higher £25m, not far off the £30m the Eagles actually forked out to land his services a couple of months later.
Using the £25m, that is a 257% increase in the value he was once worth when first entering the building at Leeds, with the 25-year-old aiming to now make a name for himself at Selhurst Park away from his boyhood employers, but only one goal has found the back of the net so far for him in South London.
Leeds will be hoping that their own issues in front of goal subside soon too or the promotion hopefuls could be busy in January adding in more firepower.
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ByDan Emery
