Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds United reportedly want to sign Daniel Ayala from Championship rivals Boro – will the defender arrive at Elland Road?
Leeds United have conceded just nine goals in 16 Championship games this season. The problem is, over half of those have come from set pieces.
And The Whites’ Achilles heel was exposed yet again in a victory against Blackburn Rovers which was far more nervy than it really should have been. The Elland Road faithful haven’t had many chances to relax this season and they were once again left biting their nails as Derrick Williams’ lost Luke Ayling from a corner and thumped a header past Kiko Casilla.
Too often this season, Leeds have dominated games, squandered chance after chance and then conceded from a corner. It happened as Marcelo Bielsa’s side dropped points against Swansea, Nottingham Forest and Charlton and history could easily have repeated itself when Rovers came to town.
But reports linking Leeds with a January move for Middlesbrough’s Daniel Ayala, via TEAMtalk, suggest that the pre-season title favourites are at least taking steps to rectify a worrying trend.
Standing at 6ft 2ins, the one-time Liverpool youngster thrived in a typically direct Tony Pulis team with his salmon-like leap making him one of the first names on the team-sheet under the now-departed Welshman. With a pass completion rate of just 74 per cent, Ayala is hardly the sort of cultured centre-half who Marcelo Bielsa likes, more Pontus Jansson than Ben White, but his signing would highlight the need for results above all else.
Ayala, who Victor Orta knows from his time in the north east, has won 3.9 aerial duels per game in the Championship this season and he has a fine record at the other end of the pitch too. The man mountain centre-back has scored 20 goals in seven seasons at the Riverside, including a career-best seven in 2017/18.
It’s not exactly Bielsa’s style to bring a giant defender off the bench to see out a tight 1-0 win but even the arch purist understands that football is a results business and, if Leeds are to finally seal a return to the big time, they cannot afford to keep gifting teams a goal from dead-ball situations.
Ayala could be a real difference maker.
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