Leeds United had a busy summer of transfer business in the recent window as Daniel Farke made a number of changes to his playing squad at Elland Road.
The Whites head coach lost a few of his star players from the 2023/24 campaign, after they failed to earn promotion to the Premier League, as Crysencio Summerville, Georginio Rutter, Glen Kamara, and Archie Gray all moved on permanently.
Those exits allowed the West Yorkshire outfit to bring in players of their own to bolster the manager’s options across the park, with the likes of Largie Ramazani, Manor Solomon, Ao Tanaka, Joe Rothwell, Joe Rodon, and Jayden Bogle, among others, coming in.
Farke did not, however, swoop to add another centre-forward option to his playing squad, instead deciding to keep faith in Joel Piroe, Patrick Bamford, and Mateo Joseph for the first half of the season at least.
In the 2023/24 season, those three strikers combined for 23 goals in the Championship, including the play-offs, and Piroe accounted for 14 of those strikes.
How Leeds' strikers have performed this season
At the start of the current campaign, Farke decided to place his faith in 20-year-old academy graduate Joseph to be his first-choice centre-forward.
The Spain U21 international had not started any of his previous 20 appearances in the Championship for Leeds before starting the first eight games of this term, as the manager handed him a huge chance to showcase his quality on a regular basis.
Joseph had mixed success in those eight outings. He struggled in front of goal – with one strike from 1.91 xG – but did provide quality creativity with four ‘big chances’ created and four assists.
Piroe, meanwhile, had scored three goals off the bench in eight appearances before finding the back of the net for a fourth time, from the start, against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light.
The Dutchman, however, has not created a single ‘big chance’ for his teammates and has lost 69% of his duels in the division, which shows that he has fallen short at the creative and physical side of the game.
Bamford has made three appearances off the bench in the league and is yet to contribute with a goal or an assist, whilst he has only completed 55% of his attempted passes.
Leeds do not currently have an all-round striker who is able to lead the line effectively and offer goals, assists, mobility, and physicality, as shown by Joseph’s goalscoring woes and Piroe’s lack of creativity and strength.
The Whites could find that complete centre-forward and help to fire Farke’s side to promotion this season by revisiting their previous interest in Norwich City sensation Josh Sargent, who the 49ers were keen to bring to Elland Road in the past.
Leeds United's previous interest in Josh Sargent
In the summer of 2023, Football Insider reported that Leeds were eyeing up a late swoop in August to sign the USA international from the Canaries on a permanent deal.
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The same outlet later claimed that Sargent was keen to complete a move to Yorkshire at the time and would have been open to working with Farke again, after the German boss had signed him for Norwich from Werder Bremen ahead of the 2021/22 campaign.
It added that the Yellows were reluctant to lose the former Bundesliga starlet but that it also would not take a ‘huge’ fee to secure his services before the end of the window.
Appearances
40
Goals
13
Big chances missed
9
Big chances created
5
Assists
2
As you can see in the table above, Sargent had scored 13 goals and provided two assists in 40 appearances in the Championship during the previous campaign, playing under Dean Smith and David Wagner.
Only 19 of those games came as a centre-forward, though, and his form in front of goal for the Canaries has been far more impressive since the start of last season, as he has been exclusively used as a number nine.
Leeds did not end up securing a deal for the American dynamo in the summer of 2023 and must now revisit their interest in the upcoming January window to fire the team to promotion this season.
Why Leeds should sign Josh Sargent
EFL pundit, presenter, and writer Gab Sutton recently claimed that Sargent “is the best ST in the Championship” and hailed the way he brings the best out of the players around him in the team.
The USA international missed 28 games for club and country last season through an ankle injury and still managed to end the Championship term with 16 goals to his name – at least two more than any of Leeds’ strikers.
Sargent racked up 16 goals from an xG tally of 12.07, which speaks to his exceptional finishing quality at that level, and two assists from 2.74 xA in 24 starts for the Canaries.
Wagner was then sacked at the end of that season and Danish head coach Johannes Hoff Thorup was brought in. The new Norwich manager appears to have got the best out of the attacker’s all-round game in the current campaign.
Appearances
9
Goals
4
Big chances created
3
Assists
3
Duel success rate
47%
As you can see in the table above, Sargent has already recorded more assists this term than he managed last season, whilst also holding largely his own in physical duels and scoring four goals.
The 24-year-old marksman, who has completed 82% of his attempted passes, has scored 20 goals and provided five assists in 33 starts in the Championship since the start of the 2023/24 campaign.
Meanwhile, Piroe has scored 17 goals in 54 league games during the same period. This suggests that Sargent would come in and offer far more of a goal threat in the number nine position, whilst also offering mobility, physicality, and creativity.
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Therefore, Leeds could fire themselves to promotion by swooping to sign an all-round centre-forward who would be an upgrade on all of their current options, whilst already knowing the manager and the league, to bolster their attack and secure a top two position in the second half of the campaign.
