Leeds United extended their unbeaten run to seven matches in the Championship with a 1-1 draw against Blackburn Rovers at Elland Road on New Year’s Day.
It was a match devoid of any real quality for the most part but the hosts appeared on course to snatch all three points after Pascal Struijk opened the scoring from the penalty spot in the 88th minute.
However, poor defending from a corner just 90 seconds later allowed Danny Batth to smash home from close-range after several opportunities for Leeds to clear the danger.
There were a number of underwhelming performers across the pitch for Daniel Farke in the game, particularly in the forward line, and Manor Solomon is one star who failed to shine.
Manor Solomon’s performance against Blackburn
The Tottenham Hotspur loanee was brought into the starting line-up after he came off the bench and created two ‘big chances’ for his side against Derby County at Pride Park in the previous match.
Unfortunately, however, the Israel international was unable to display that kind of creative quality again, as he failed to create any ‘big chances’ in his 70 minutes on the pitch, with just one key pass in total.
The 25-year-old dynamo lost possession ten times, and lost five of his six duels, but did complete 90% of his attempted passes, which shows that he was relatively reliable with the ball at his feet.
Ultimately, though, Solomon did not have the required impact in the final third and that is why he let Farke down with his underwhelming display on the left flank.
One Leeds star who was even worse than the Premier League loanee, however, was the winger on the other side of the pitch – Wales international Dan James.
Why Dan James should be dropped
With the attacking options that Farke has at his disposal, including Largie Ramazani and Wilfried Gnonto on the bench, the Whites wide men cannot afford to have bad games if they want to start regularly.
James, who did not start at Pride Park, came into the starting XI with a chance to nail down a place in the line-up moving forward into the rest of this month, and failed to take it.
The Welsh winger played the full match, including around 16 minutes of stoppage time across both halves, and was not directly involved in a goal, with just one shot on target – that was saved – and zero ‘big chances’ created.
|
Vs Blackburn |
Dan James |
|---|---|
|
Minutes (including stoppage time) |
116 |
|
Shots on target |
1 |
|
Big chances created |
0 |
|
Dribbles completed |
0/2 |
|
Possession lost |
24x |
|
Stats via Sofascore |
|
As you can see in the table above, James was very wasteful with the ball at his feet, losing possession a staggering 24 times, and had little impact at the top end of the pitch.
He was even worse than Solomon, who created as many chances (one) as James and lost possession 14 fewer times to do so, and should be ruthlessly dropped from the team.
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Farke needs more from his wide players if Leeds want to push on and secure an automatic promotion place in the second half of the season, and James did not do enough on Wednesday, which is why the forward should be ditched.