Leeds United’s best striker signings since 2004: Where does Chris Wood rank amongst the top five?

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Here is HITC Sport’s final part looking at the top 15 striker signings Leeds United have made since their relegation from the top flight in 2004.

Here is the final part of HITC Sport’s look into the top 15 striker signings that Leeds United have made since their relegation from the top flight back in 2004, which concludes with the top five:

5. Max Gradel

Max Gradel

The Ivory Coast international is only at five on this list simply because he was often deployed as a winger rather than an out and out striker. But there is no question that he enjoyed a brilliant spell at Elland Road. During the 2010/11 season – the club’s first back in the second tier – he scored 18 times in the league to send the Whites desperately close to the top six.

4. Ross McCormack

Ross McCormack

The Scottish forward was Leeds’ talisman for a number of years before his departure, and it is safe to say that he enjoyed plenty of success from a goalscoring perspective. In his final season, he scored 28 times in just 43 games. He perhaps deserves to be higher on this list, but his inconsistency across the four years coupled with the team’s inability to make any kind of play-off charge during that time counts against him.

3. Chris Wood

Chris Wood

It is perhaps controversial to include Chris Wood ahead of Ross McCormack but he reached double figures in his first season, and is already closing in on his total from last term this time around. While he has come in for criticism at times, he has shown that he knows where the back of the net is and it would not be a surprise if he surpassed McCormack’s number of goals for the club at some stage.

2. Jermaine Beckford

Jermaine Beckford

After a brilliant time in non-league, Jermaine Beckford was signed by Leeds in 2006. The club’s relegation to League One can perhaps be deemed as something of a positive for the striker in particular as it saw him given the opportunity to establish himself in the first-team. And he took the opportunity with both hands, scoring 71 league goals before earning a move to Everton in 2010. His most notable contributions both came in his final year with the club as he scored the winning goal against Manchester United in the FA Cup and the goal that sealed promotion to the Championship.

1. Luciano Becchio

Luciano Becchio

While Beckford boasts a better strike-rate, Luciano Becchio tops the list due to the fact that the majority of his goals came in the second tier rather than the third. He stepped out of Beckford’s shadow and established himself as Leeds’ key man following their return to the Championship, but ultimately left for Norwich before a team seriously capable of battling for promotion could be built at Elland Road.