How long will Daniel Farke be given to turn around the ongoing Leeds United mess?
After so much joy at Elland Road, Marcelo Bielsa was put out of his misery 26 games into the 2021/22 season in the Premier League, mustering up just a measly five victories.
By way of comparison, the German is only two victories away from matching that amount right now, with 15 fewer league games under his belt.
Of course, Bielsa was handed more time in the hot seat due to his iconic status in West Yorkshire, but Jesse Marsch was also given 20 league games the following campaign when the Leeds ship looked to be sinking.
A trigger-happy dismissal might not be forthcoming, then, but Farke will know he needs to turn fortunes around quickly, as a whole raft of players continue to underperform.
Bielsa and Marsch were no strangers, either, to players joining the Leeds ranks and ultimately flopping, with Robin Koch one costly error that must still generate grimaces at the Premier League newcomers.
The numbers behind Koch's move to Leeds
It’s fair to say there were an awful lot of misses in the transfer department when the South American and his Wisconsin-born counterpart occupied their dug-outs.
Faces such as Luis Sinisterra, Tyler Adams, and Rasmus Kristensen all joined for big bucks, and then disappeared when relegation was served up at the end of the gloomy 2022/23 season, with Sinisterra and Adams alone costing a whopping £41m to pick up at the time.
Thankfully, the bruised Whites managed to recoup £40m when selling the disappointing duo to AFC Bournemouth. On the contrary, the aforementioned Koch would return to his native Germany for zilch after a largely woeful three seasons in England.
In the end, Leeds were probably just happy to get their former £12m purchase off their roster, even if it was on a free transfer to Eintracht Frankfurt, with the German only managing to collect a dire ten clean sheets from 73 Premier League appearances.
Once branded as being simply “not good enough” by The Athletic’s Beren Cross and looking like a “fish out of water” by pundit Danny Mills, it really was a transfer saga that hurt Leeds, and it still does, arguably, considering Koch has since returned to his more well-known comforts of the Bundesliga and has excelled. This season, he has two goals from ten league appearances, winning a mighty 5.4 duels won on average, too, for Frankfurt.
For context, the no-nonsense Joe Rodon has averaged 5.3 duels won back in the Premier League, but he’s far from a transfer misfire.
Rather, it’s another expensive defensive recruit who could be deemed Leeds’ biggest disaster signing since Koch
Leeds' biggest disaster since Koch
The most frustrating aspect of Koch’s Leeds career, looking back, is that he had a promising debut campaign in West Yorkshire, even if it was ravaged by injury.
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Only 13 starts came his way, but four clean sheets were collected, with a final day showing to close out the 21/22 campaign, even seeing him win seven duels against Tottenham Hotspur.
Unfortunately, Jaka Bijol can’t even cling to any early promise at the moment, having cost £3m more than Koch when leaving Udinese behind.
It should have been a giveaway that the Slovenian might struggle, considering Farke was hesitant to chuck the ex-Serie A titan into his starting XI at the start of the season, with the German eventually chucking Bijol into the Premier League deep-end against West Ham United in late October.
Games played
3
Goals conceded
6
Losses
2
Clean sheets
0
Tackles won
3
Duels won
12/19
He did win six duels against the Hammers as Farke’s men got the better of their relegation rivals 2-1, but his showings against Brighton and Hove Albion and Nottingham Forest since must be leaving a similarly bad taste in the mouth that the German defender once left.
He found himself in no man’s land when Morgan Gibbs-White had all the time in the world to head home this decisive goal at the City Ground, with the out-of-sorts number 16 only managing to win one lacklustre tackle across both heavy away defeats.
The £45k-per-week defender will surely be fearful for his starting spot moving forward; therefore, as Pascal Struijk waits in the wings, with Bijol also yet to show off his prowess in the air, which saw him bag four goals for Udinese in Serie A action.
If Farke is to persist with Bijol, he could go on to be viewed as a Koch-type weak link for oppositions to hone in on, with a potential relegation on his CV also no doubt making him hard to shift for anywhere near his £15m valuation, like the forgettable 29-year-old.
He does still have time to turn around his Elland Road playing days, but the early signs are not good, as Leeds have been here before with a hyped up European import that never lives up to his high price tag.
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