Phil Hay: Fulham star mentioned as player Leeds potentially want to sign
The Athletic journalist Phil Hay has revealed that Fulham’s Joe Bryan is a left-back who Leeds United could try to sign this summer.
The former Yorkshire Evening Post journalist was asked on Sunday whether Leeds are in pursuit of any left-backs at the moment.
Writing on his personal Twitter account, Hay replied: “Joe Bryan was mentioned to me earlier in the window (and [Antonee] Robinson has now gone to Fulham) but it doesn’t look as if Leeds have pursued that yet.”
Leeds do have plenty of players who can play at left-back.
Stuart Dallas was perhaps the stand-out player in that role last season while Ezgjan Alioski, Barry Douglas and Leif Davis can also play on the left-hand side of the defence.
However, out of those, Douglas is the only natural left-back with a good amount of senior experience and Dallas could be seen more as a utility player by Marcelo Bielsa next season due to his impressive versatility.
Bryan is an out-and-out left-back.
Last season he made 49 appearances in all competitions for Fulham, scoring three goals in the process.
Two of those goals came in the Championship play-off final win against Brentford at Wembley while the former Bristol City left-back also assisted eight goals in total for the Cottagers.
The London Evening Standard said after that display that Bryan “has not quite hit the heights expected of him” at Craven Cottage.
He struggled in the Premier League with them as they were relegated in 2018/19 with his attack-minded style perhaps more suited to a top-end Championship club than a team in the Premier League that’s aim is to stay up.
But, Bielsa relies on attack-minded full-backs – it wouldn’t be his style of play if he opted for full-backs who are more defensively sound.
Is Bryan going to be a better option at left-back than Dallas? It’s really hard to say but one thing is for sure and that is that Bielsa will improve the 26-year-old leaps and bounds if Leeds do follow up on that initial interest in him.
In other Leeds United news, this midfielder is close to leaving Leeds on loan.