Leeds United destroyed over summer dealings as pundits name promoted side best equipped to avoid drop

Leeds United have been warned they face an extremely tough task avoiding the drop this season after Jeff Stelling and Ally McCoist lamented a perceived ‘lack of intent’ in the summer window – with the pair explaining why Sunderland now look best equipped to avoid the drop.

The last six sides all promoted to the Premier League have suffered an instant return to the second tier, with Southampton, Ipswich and Leicester all putting up a tepid fight for survival last time around. But when Leeds romped to the Championship title with a 100-point tally and some swashbuckling attacking football, hopes were alive that Daniel Farke’s side could buck the trend.

However, despite a strong start to the window that resulted in Leeds strengthening their midfield, defence and goalkeeper positions, their failure to adequately strengthen their attack looks poised to cost Farke’s side dear.

Leeds did make attempts to recruit in the offensive third, with late moves for both Facundo Buonanotte and Harry Wilson breaking down, while earlier window moves for Rodrigo Muniz and Igor Paixao ultimately came to nothing.

While Farke’s side did manage to bring in Noah Okafor in an £18m deal from AC Milan, and also landed free agents Lukas Nmecha and Dominic Calvert-Lewin, the fact they’ve only scored once in three Premier League games so far paints a worrying picture of what is to come.

Now pundits McCoist and Stelling have cast their worrying verdicts over why the bungled window means Leeds now face a tough battle to survive.

Speaking on talkSPORT, Stelling said: “I really do not know who is gonna score goals for them: That’s what worries me for Leeds United.”

McCoist was in full agreement and said: “Looking at the newly promoted sides. And I think it’s fair to say more people would say Sunderland and Leeds have a slightly better opportunity than Burnley to stay up.

“That might not prove to be the case, right?

“If you’re looking at it objectively, if you’re a Sunderland fan, you’ve got to be saying, ‘Well, we’ve got promoted. We really needed to strengthen, and we’ve done that.’

“So it’s certainly from the board and the owners and the management, you can tell there’s a serious show of intent. I’m not sure – I’m agreeing with you, Jeff – I’m not sure Leeds have done that.”

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Pundits are right: Farke now has a mountain to climb with Leeds

For those who witnessed Leeds’ 0-0 draw with Newcastle on Saturday, they’ll have witnessed a new-look Whites side well-equipped to compete in the Premier League. Indeed, the Whites more than matched Eddie Howe’s side in midfield and the much-heralded duo Bruno Guimaraes and Sandro Tonali knew they had been in a game against Sean Longstaff, Ilia Gruev and Anton Stach.

Reassuringly, Leeds also did not ever look creaky in defence – admittedly, perhaps owing to Newcastle’s lack of options in attack on the day – and Farke’s side were certainly good value for their clean sheet.

However – and this is a big ‘but’ – Leeds simply did not look like scoring and were painfully toothless against the visitors.

And one goal in three Premier League games – a penalty at that – tells you all you need to know about their lack of potency in the final third.

As it stands, Farke now has a mountain to climb, and he will be desperately hoping that Calvert-Lewin can stay fit and recapture his form of yesteryear, while fellow new-boy Okafor also hits the ground running.

But as many supporters have stated: Farke has been badly let down by the club over transfers and he now faces a huge battle in ensuring their survival.

He’s been sent to a gun fight armed with a water pistol: hardly fair metrics.

As a result, Farke will either need to turn to the free-agents market – of which there are some relatively tempting options – or work with what he has.

But getting wins from this bunch certainly looks a tall order and if they do succumb to the drop, then the blame will very much be pinned on those failures by those in charge of transfers at Elland Road.

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Goal scored so far by newly-promoted sides to the Premier League