Leeds star now looks like their best Premier League player since Phillips

Leeds United head coach Daniel Farke is looking to follow in Marcelo Bielsa’s footsteps by steering the club clear of relegation in their first season back in the Premier League.

After a run of four straight losses, the Whites have picked up four points and scored six goals in two matches against Chelsea and Liverpool in the top-flight, which has pushed them out of the bottom three.

Farke has needed his players to step up in recent games to climb back out of the relegation zone, and several stars have shown that they have what it takes to deliver in the Premier League.

Ranking Leeds United’s top performers this season

Joe Rodon, who has started all 15 games, has proven to be a reliable option at the heart of the defence, winning 69% of his ground duels in the top-flight, per Sofascore.

Gabriel Gudmundsson, signed from Lille in the summer, has also caught the eye at left-back, with 3.1 tackles and interceptions and 1.3 dribbles completed per game, per Sofascore, whilst exciting fans with his bombing runs down the left flank.

£17.4m signing Anton Stach has been one of the top three performers for the Whites, though, with his return of two goals and two assists as a box-to-box midfielder.

As you can see in the ranking above, we have placed Sean Longstaff in second place. He leads the team in ‘big chances’ created (six), but he has also only started ten of the 15 league games, per Sofascore.

That leaves the captain, Ethan Ampadu, in first place as Leeds United’s best Premier League performer since they sold Kalvin Phillips to Manchester City in 2022.

Why Ampadu is Leeds United’s best Premier League player since Phillips

After Phillips was sold to City for £45m, after emerging as an England regular at Elland Road, the Whites were relegated from the top-flight in the 2022/23 campaign. No other player was able to step up and save them from trouble.

The English star was particularly impressive with Marcelo Bielsa, as shown in the graphic above, and he averaged 3.9 tackles and interceptions per game in midfield in his last Premier League season with Leeds.

Ampadu, now, is looking like the club’s best top-flight performer since Phillips departed. He was judged as an “indispensable” part of Leeds’ midfield in the words of scout Jacek Kulig when promotion was being eyed up, and since moving up a division, he has been a rock on the pitch in the middle of the park. It’s safe to say he could be the first player to lead the team to safety since the Man City midfielder was at the club.

Off the pitch, teammate Karl Darlow described him as a “brilliant” person who has “handled the pressure” of captaining Leeds in the Premier League, which speaks to the qualities that he provides as a leader within the group, and perhaps explains how the team pulled off the last two results despite such a poor run of form that preceded them.

On the pitch, his performances have been impressive. Ampadu lined up in the middle of the park in the games against Chelsea and Liverpool and caught the eye with his defensive nous.

As you can see in the table above, the Wales international was perfect in his tackles and did not allow an opposition player to dribble past him a single time, which shows how combative and reliable he was in midfield.

Ampadu has started all 13 of his appearances in the Premier League this season, per Sofascore, and averaged an eye-catching 3.7 tackles and interceptions per game, which is just shy of the 3.9 that Phillips averaged in his final season with the club.

The former Chelsea starlet offers a similar presence to the England international at the base of the midfield for Leeds, sitting in front of the back four and screening play, making vital defensive interventions to regain possession and start attacks for his side.

He has won 60% of his ground duels and 53% of his aerial duels, per Sofascore, whilst only being dribbled past 0.6 times per match, which shows that Ampadu has been efficient and reliable in the middle of the park for Farke, as an ever-present when fit.

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Overall, the Welshman may well be the club’s best Premier League player since Phillips, not just for the quality that he clearly provides as a holding midfielder, but also for his leadership skills and how he handles the pressure of leading a Premier League side.