Leeds Can Land Their Own Haaland with £20m Sensation

With their off-the-field issues slowly clearing following affirmation that 49ers Enterprises have agreed a full takeover of the membership, Leeds United’s full focus can now flip to issues on the pitch forward of their return to the Championship.

United are looking out for a brand new supervisor and new gamers following relegation from the Premier League final month, ending their three-year keep again within the high flight.

With somewhat over seven weeks to go till the brand new marketing campaign begins, Leeds seem to have already got just a few targets in thoughts, together with arguably the Championship’s most in-demand participant in Victor Gyokeres.

Who’s Coventry Metropolis striker Victor Gyokeres?

Leeds are mentioned to have made bringing in Gyokeres one in every of their priorities as they appear to strengthen their assault for the 2023-24 season, although Soccer Insider beforehand reported that Wolverhampton Wanderers lead the race, with as many as 5 Premier League groups circling.

It’s little surprise Gyokeres is excessive on the record of quite a few golf equipment’ switch radars, having scored 21 targets final season – solely Middlesbrough’s Chuba Akpom (28) scored extra within the Championship – and assisted 10 extra.

With a combined 31 targets and assists, Gyokeres performed a direct half in additional targets than some other participant within the second tier final season as Coventry narrowly missed out on promotion by way of the play-offs.

Certainly, no staff was extra reliant on one participant for his or her targets within the Championship final season, with Gyokeres responsible for 36% of their strikes – Carlton Morris being subsequent on the record with 35% (20 of Luton City’s 57 targets), as per WhoScored.

Is Victor Gyokeres the Championship model of Haaland?

Clearly, then, Gyokeres is a participant who’s greater than able to each scoring and creating targets for a staff competing for promotion to the Premier League – or certainly a staff already within the high tier.

Coventry boss Tony Mowbray has described the Sweden worldwide – who aged simply 25 nonetheless has his greatest years forward of him – as a “powerful” striker within the mould of arguably Europe’s deadliest striker, Erling Haaland.

The stats do certainly again up Mowbray’s level relating to the presence that the 2 gamers possess, with Gyokeres winning 1.86 of his aerial duels final season, as per FBref, and Haaland 1.62 of his.

They have been additionally similar when it comes to average touches within the opposition penalty space (7.16 and seven.05 respectively) and for interceptions (0.07 and 0.10), which covers each the offensive and defensive facets of their video games.

Additionally, much like Gyokeres scoring a better proportion of his staff’s targets than some other participant within the Championship, Haaland was second in the identical record within the Premier League (38%), behind solely Tottenham’s Harry Kane (43%).

That isn’t to say Gyokeres – available for £20m when factoring in add-ons, in line with Soccer Insider – is on the identical degree as Haaland, who set a new record with 36 Premier League targets this previous season, however the former Brighton and Hove Albion participant definitely has qualities that set him other than others within the division.

With Patrick Bamford low on confidence following a disappointing marketing campaign during which he scored four goals in 28 appearances, and query marks over Joe Gelhardt – he hardly lit up the Championship with Sunderland final season, in spite of everything, with simply three targets to his identify – Gyokeres is the confirmed striker Leeds must make an instantaneous return to the massive time.