Leeds United lost their second Premier League game of the season 2-0 away against Bournemouth.
On paper, this isn’t a terrible result for Daniel Farke’s men. Bournemouth are flying at the minute and are also in the Europa League.
However, we were unable to score for the second consecutive game over the weekend. We are also on a run of scoring just two goals in our last five games.
But in the aftermath of the Bournemouth game, another concerning statistic has emerged that Farke needs to address immediately.
Leeds United ranked bottom of Premier League as “damning” statistic emerges
Whilst most would’ve expected Bournemouth to beat us prior to kick-off, the fact we were the better side for the opening 25 minutes or so makes the defeat sting that little bit more.
James Trafford effectively gifting the hosts their opening goal of the game obviously didn’t help matters too.
One of the most frustrating things that resurfaced during that game was our struggles in the final third. I already mentioned we’ve been struggling to find the back of the net as of late, and we struggled to create clear-cut chances once again, this time against Bournemouth.
Opta’s Jonny Cooper recently posted a stat that will surely cause concern. Of the 96 teams in Europe’s big-five leagues, Leeds rank 95th for their final third passing accuracy with 56.9%.
This percentage unsurprisingly means we are sat at the bottom of the Premier League as well regarding this statistic.
Daniel Farke has to fix this ASAP
I don’t think this stat regarding our passing being sloppy in the final third coinciding with Anton Stach enduring a poor run of form is a coincidence.
Last season, the German midfielder created nine big chances for us. This season, Stach has only managed to create one.
In his first campaign in West Yorkshire, Stach made 25 passes per game on average with an accuracy of 77%. This season, it has fallen to 18.7 passes per game with a 73% completion rate. (Sofascore)
So if our creativity struggles are to come to an end, you’d imagine we’d need to see Stach’s form improve.
Over the weekend, Harry Wilson had his best game in a Leeds shirt, with the Welshman frequently linking up with Jayden Bogle on that right flank in the first half. So perhaps Farke’s solution to this problem is to continue to embed Wilson into the team to give us that extra bit of quality in and around the opponents’ box.
However, whether it’s a change in system or personnel, Farke needs to find a solution sooner rather than later, as we cannot continue to be this sloppy going forward.
