Analysis: The different things Leeds United want from wingers and who provides what — Yorkshire Post 27/8/25
By Stuart Rayner
DANIEL FARKE is hoping to have a stable of wingers who can
offer him different qualities when the transfer window closes on Monday at 7pm.
Leeds United have spent more than £100m in this transfer
window but their manager hopes he is not done yet, still looking for firepower
wide and/or at centre-forward.
Players may have to move on to allow that, with Valencia
said to be exploring a season-long loan for Largie Ramazani, and Werder Bremen
interested in buying Isaac Schmidt, where previously a loan was floated.
As well as Ramazani, Leeds have Noah Okafor, Daniel James,
Willy Gnonto, Jack Harrison and Brenden Aaronson as wide options.
James and Gnonto have started Leeds’ two Premier League
games, and Okafor and Aaronson kicked off at Sheffield Wednesday in the League
Cup on Tuesday.
Although Farke sees versatility as crucial, he wants a group
that give him different tactical options tailored to each game.
"It's important for all the wingers to be
flexible," he stressed. "Nowadays you don't have a specialist winger
who always plays on the right side or the left side.
"It's (partly about) the set-up of the opponent, which
strength we want to use, a full-back who stays a bit deeper or goes higher, and
you have to take this into account."
How they play the position varies.
Farke noted: "We have different types now – wingers who
can deliver lots of workload and are pretty disciplined against the ball,
wingers with an X-factor, some very quick wingers good in one-against-ones,
perhaps a No 10 type of winger who when we chase a game could interpret the No
10 role slightly differently to what we've done in pre-season."
Harrison favours his left foot and gives width and crossing
on that side, as Marcelo Bielsa liked him to. That should play to Dominic
Calvert-Lewin’s strengths when he is the centre-forward. Ditto, James, a speedy
dribbler, on the right.
Gnonto is a right-footer who has played for Italy at
centre-forward, so when on the left as in Leeds' first two matches, he is more
about goal threat than assists. A tendency to drift inside opens space for an
attacking full-back.
James has played many times at centre-forward for club and
country, but has only really become an effective goalscorer under Farke, who
likes him on the right. He has 25 goals in two seasons – more than the previous
seven.
Aaronson is a “No 10” – a player who floats centrally
between midfield and attack – but Leeds' switch to 4-3-3 this season has seen
him come on twice as a right winger.
Okafor's goal ratio is similar on the left and right – about
one in four – but he creates more from the right. He has also played a lot
centrally as a No 9, a 10, or somewhere in between.
There is another skill to consider, as Farke outlined when
he explained why Harrison, who occasionally played wing-back for Bielsa and has
been known to finish a game as an auxiliary full-back when his team is chasing
a goal, was preferred on the bench to Ramazani at Arsenal.
Harrison, he said, was a "more solid defensive worker" – not to be under-estimated against sides as strong as the Gunners.
