When Leeds United conceded from yet another set piece in their 1-0 defeat to Charlton Athletic in late September, it was all to easy to point to the absence of a commanding, dominant centre-back with a leap like a salmon and a forehead carved out of steel. Pontus Jansson, essentially.
Since this Swedish Viking of a centre-back departed Elland Road under a cloud of his own making over the summer, joining Brentford in a shock £5.5 million deal (Yorkshire Post), Marcelo Bielsa’s side have looked more than a little vulnerable at set pieces.
Nottingham Forest scraped a draw in West Yorkshire after Leeds failed to clear a corner and Swansea, just weeks later, went one step further with a stoppage-time winner.
But it’s far to easy to suggest that Jansson alone would have solved the issue.
The one-time cult hero wasn’t even in the same postcode as Grant Hall as the QPR number four slammed home a header from an Eberechi Eze corner during Monday night’s Championship clash at Loftus Road, after all, with his overall performance doing little to convince the watching Leeds fans that he was wrongly forced out – even if he did throw his body on the line with a typical last-gasp block.
In almost every single way, Ben White represents a substantial upgrade and no amount of set piece goals will change that.
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