Leeds United’s struggling attack is very much a work in progress currently.
While the defence has been largely solid since making the nervy step-up back to the Premier League, with another clean sheet nearly collected away at Fulham, the forward areas have looked consistently below-par, scoring just once from their opening four clashes.
Daniel Farke will be ripping his hair out at the moment, trying to work out a successful attacking formula, having masterminded an incredible promotion just last season that saw 95 goals fired home.
The German does have some promising new attackers at his disposal, but it looks as if it will take time to get them to their best, with Dominic Calvert-Lewin, in particular, enduring a tough start to life in West Yorkshire.
Calvert-Lewin's tough start at Leeds
Plenty of eyebrows were raised when Calvert-Lewin entered the building late in the busy summer transfer window as Leeds’ standout striker signing.
After all, the injury-prone former Everton marksman would join on a free transfer, with alternative faces in attack such as Noah Okafor arriving with plenty more positive fanfare, having cost a whopping £18m to obtain.
Still, irrespective of the costs involved in their respective deals, both players visibly struggled at Craven Cottage, with a calamitous own-goal ultimately the difference-maker.
Indeed, Okafor would fail to impress on his first Premier League start, failing to complete an accurate cross for the lofty Calvert-Lewin to try and connect with. On top of that, the quiet Swiss also failed to hit a single shot on target at Bernd Leno’s goal.
The numbers aren’t any prettier when assessing the Sheffield-born striker, either, with the low-on-confidence number nine only managing a meagre 15 touches of the ball as an isolated figure in Farke’s forward line.
The manager will just be praying that the 28-year-old gets the service he needs shortly to break out of his poor start, with the former England international boasting 71 goals in the top-flight when brimming with confidence.
Wolverhampton Wanderers up next might well be the occasion where Calvert-Lewin finally shows up.
Yet, in an alternate reality, the ex-Toffees centre-forward would already be up and running in Leeds white.
Leeds have sold a player who's perfect for Calvert-Lewin
Away from Okafor, Farke does have a lot of options up his sleeve down the wings, with Daniel James, Wilfried Gnonto, and Jack Harrison all being thrown into the action late on at Craven Cottage.
The last of those listed does feel as if he is on borrowed time at Leeds, though, with the hit-and-miss Englishman only averaging 21 minutes of action this season in the league when used sparingly.
Even more worryingly, Harrison finds himself without a goal or assist in Premier League action since scoring last March for Calvert-Lewin’s ex-employers, with Leeds now wishing they had Jack Clarke back at their disposal in a dream reality to help the below-par attackers out.
When Clarke’s name springs to mind, he is certainly more synonymous for his blistering exploits with Sunderland than with Leeds, with 28 goals and 23 assists coming his way for the Black Cats after struggling to ever settle at Tottenham Hotspur immediately after ditching Elland Road.
Games played
32
Games started
12
Goals scored
0
Assists
4
Big chances created
4
Thankfully, the right-footed forward did show off his explosiveness in the Premier League last season with Ipswich Town.
An “unplayable” star in the words of Tony Mowbray, the attacker may well have been worried that he’d just be pigeonholed in the Championship.
However, he did show flashes of his excellence in Suffolk last campaign to suggest he could be a Premier League-level talent moving forward, with four assists coming his way from just 12 starts under Kieran McKenna. One of those assists also saw him compared to a £100m player, with Sky Sports commentator Alan Smith suggesting he “has a bit of Grealish about him.”
This split-second ability to be able to fashion a chance for a teammate would be music to the ears of an isolated Calvert-Lewin, with the hot-and-cold Englishman content with minimal touches of the ball before being unleashed in front of goal.
At his peak in 2020/21, he averaged just 34.7 touches per league match, which still ended up with him picking up an impressive 16 strikes.
Clarke succeeding as an impact substitute option also suggests he would be an upgrade on a forgettable Harrison if he were back at Elland Road.
Away from all these theoretical conversations, though, the ex-Norwich City boss will just have to make do with what he’s got until January at the very earliest, with the attack hopefully having clicked by that vital mid-point.