Daniel Farke should not panic amid Gabriel Gudmundsson selection dilemma against Wolves
Leeds United suffered a devastating 1-0 loss at Craven Cottage to Fulham over the weekend.
It’s not often you can say this in football, but the sole reason Leeds did not leave the capital with a point was an individual error from Gabriel Gudmundsson, who scored an own-goal in stoppage time.
Karl Darlow’s heroics against Fulham were ultimately for nothing as Leeds and Gudmundsson have to pick themselves up for their trip to Molineux on Sunday.
Ahead of Leeds’ game against Wolves, Daniel Farke has a selection dilemma when it comes to who will be his starting left-back.
Daniel Farke should give Gabriel Gudmundsson the nod to start over James Justin
Justin, 27, was brought in from Leicester by Leeds as full-back cover.
Whilst the former England international can provide valuable cover on both sides of the defence, James should not be thrown into the starting XI against Wolves off the back of Gudmundsson’s costly mistake.
- Gudmundsson has started all four of Leeds’ Premier League matches this season
- Aside from the game against Arsenal, Gudmundsson has been a part of a backline that has conceded under 1 xG against every opponent they have faced.
- Everton, Newcastle and Fulham combined only registered an xG of 2.11 against Leeds
Disrupting a backline for what has been so watertight for the most part would make no sense from Farke and would be an emotional and rash decision.
Dropping Gudmundsson would only compound his misery and could potentially shatter his confidence even further.
Data suggests Gabriel Gudmundsson has been outstanding so far for Leeds
Aside from his own goal, Gudmundsson has been exceptional in three of the four matches the Whites have played so far.
- Against Everton, Gudmundsson won five out of the seven ground duels he was involved in
- He had a 100 per cent ratio when it came to his ground duels against Newcastle, winning three
- Even against Fulham, he won five out of eight ground duels (Sofascore)
This data suggests that Gudmundsson has been a very good one-on-one defender early in his Leeds career and has been crucial in the two clean sheets they have kept so far.
If the Sweden international makes another mistake against Wolves, then we can start to have the conversation about bringing Justin into the side.
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