Daniel Farke will be wondering how he can get his Leeds United side back firing for the run-in.
Having been almost perfect from the turn of the New Year to the March international break, Leeds’ form has seriously faltered in the last five matches.
Leeds have picked up just five points from a possible 15 available, and but for slip-ups elsewhere, would’ve been out of it by now. Leicester City defender Conor Coady believes the pressure is getting to all of the top three at the moment.
Farke has been making some strange substitutions over the last couple of weeks, bringing on attacking players in place of defensive midfielders which has caused Leeds to lose the entire structure of the team.
It almost proved costly against Sunderland, and then did so in the defeat to Blackburn Rovers. Farke must be much smarter in his decision making, and there is one player he has particularly underused.
Farke has really under used Anthony for Leeds recently
Farke’s first three changes at the weekend saw him bring on Patrick Bamford for Ilia Gruev, Dan James for Georginio Rutter, and Sam Byram for Connor Roberts.
This led to a complete tactical reshuffle where numerous players were out of position. Willy Gnonto and Crysencio Summerville were practically on each other’s toes down the left, Archie Gray was in holding midfield, and only Farke knows where Joel Piroe was supposed to be playing.
Instead, when things are not working, Farke should be more willing to make like-for-like changes. It is what Kieran McKenna has done at Ipswich Town, and as per Opta, they have the most goal involvements by subs in the entire EFL.
Summerville is someone who has gone off the boil in the last two matches, yet Farke just refuses to take him off, even with a decent left-winger sat right there on the bench.
Jaidon Anthony has played just six minutes across Leeds’ last five matches. There is no way he should ever be starting over Summerville, but switching them when things aren’t working should not be out of the question.
Anthony is no where near as quick as Summerville, but does have a tendency to be able to get better deliveries away, as proved by his stunning cross in the FA Cup defeat at Chelsea, which Mateo Joseph praised highly.
The 24-year-old has been massively under utilised as of late, and Farke should trust him more to be Leeds’ wildcard in the last three matches.
Will Leeds be signing Anthony permanently from Bournemouth?
Leeds signed Anthony on deadline day last summer as part of the deal that took Luis Sinisterra to Bournemouth.
Sinisterra has now seen his move to the Cherries converted into a permanent deal, but it does not look like that will be the case for Anthony, with Andoni Iraola already having confirmed as such.
He said: “Yes, I have always said it. Jaidon, I like him as a player and I rate him a lot as a person. He was very involved with us in the first game of the season in August.
“I think he is a very good player to have in the squad, because he’s valuable in different positions and is very reliable. When you play Jaidon, I think you know he will give the maximum always, because his work-rate is very good.”