By Sam Stone

2nd Nov, 2022 | 3:40pm

Leif Davis performances for Ipswich surely make Leeds United regret summer decision

Over the summer Leeds United enjoyed an excellent transfer window on the whole, with plenty of money spent on a number of exciting additions.

Brenden Aaronson, Rasmus Kristensen, Marc Roca, Tyler Adams and Luis Sinisterra are all relatively young and will go on to be valuable assets for the Whites in the future. However, what do all of these players have in common?

Unfortunately, the answer is none of them can play left-back or upfront. Two glaring wholes in Jesse Marsch’s armoury, which have cost the Yorkshire side in the 2022/23 season. Patrick Bamford’s form has been poor this season, with Rodrigo shouldering most of the load at present.

It was clear Marsch wanted to land a striker with Charles De Ketelaere and Bamba Dieng targetted by the American during the summer. However, a more glaring position which needed addressing was the left-back role. Junior Firpo is quite frankly not up to the standard required to play Premier League football, as well as being plagued by injuries.

Pascal Struijk has performed admirably out of position but is not a natural full-back and is probably not the ideal player to be used in Marsch’s system.

A decision that looks to have come back to bite Leeds was allowing Leif Davis to depart the club in the summer to join League One big-spenders Ipswich Town. The 22-year-old has been an instant success at Portman Road, and should clearly not be playing in England’s third tier.

If the Tractor Boys don’t secure promotion in the 2022/23 season it would not be a surprise to see Davis being targeted by some Championship and even Premier League clubs. The left-back recently picked up his second Ipswich player of the month award in a row (Ipswich Twitter account, 2 November).

Now, considering the lack of left-backs available at Elland Road at the moment, allowing the 22-year-old to depart in the summer is looking like a poor decision. The Whites did receive a sizeable fee for Davis, but considering he was still developing and the club’s need for depth in that area, it just didn’t quite make sense.

What is absolutely essential is that Leeds now prioritise a left back in January to give Marsch some much-needed depth heading into the second half of the season.

In other Leeds United news, there were jeers for one Whites man at Anfield despite the dramatic win.