It may have only been last season, but it’s genuinely hard to understand how Leeds United managed to have the best defensive record in the Championship last term.
Marcelo Bielsa’s side were almost impossible to break down at times last season, conceding just 35 goals in 46 games and keeping a plethora of clean sheets.
This season has been a far cry from the defensive stability Leeds showed last term, they’ve shipped 44 goals in 26 games making them the second-leakiest backline in the division, and they’ve conceded four or more goals on five separate occasions in the league.
Of course, the Premier League is a higher standard than the Championship, so this sort of drop off is to be expected to an extent, but perhaps the biggest contributing factor to this ordeal is the fact that they’ve not managed to replace their star defender from last season.
Indeed, Ben White was Leeds’ most important defender last term, starting every game on his way to winning the club’s Young Player of the Year award, but United haven’t managed to adequately replace him.
Yes, they did sign a couple of centre-backs in the shape of Robin Koch and Diego Llorente, who, admittedly, have looked good in spells, but their inability to stay fit this term combined with Leeds’ poor defensive record hints that they’re still struggling without White.
Luckily, help may be on the way.
Indeed, reports are suggesting that the Yorkshire club want to sign Nicolas Nkoulou at the end of the season, and he’s very much a defender in White’s mould.
White was commended for his ability to play out from the back last season, but Nkoulou has a higher pass completion percentage than him this term, while he’s also averaging the same number of key passes per game as White did while he was at Leeds.
It’s also worth noting that his pass success rate is greater than both Koch and Llorente’s.
Of course, being a defender is about more than playing out from the back, and it seems as though Nkoulou thrives in other areas as well.
White was also known as a fantastic reader of the game, averaging 2.5 interceptions per game last term, so it’s exciting to see that Nkoulou is averaging 2.4 this term in Serie A, which with all due respect, is a much tougher league than the Championship.
Factor in that Nkoulou has already played under Bielsa at Marseille and it looks as though Leeds could be onto a winner here.
If Victor Orta can get a deal for Nkoulou over the line, he could go a long way towards filling the void left behind by White.
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