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Crysencio Summerville new position shows Farke influence is already growing on his Leeds players
Leeds United boss Daniel Farke sees Crysencio Summerville more as a number 10 than a winger, according to Phil Hay of The Athletic, with his stats so far this season showing the new role is already in play.
Hay wrote on 6 September that Farke is experimenting with different players in that deeper attacking role, but Summerville is one he views as being able to play the new position.
The German has also experimented with playing new arrival Joel Piroe there, with little success against Sheffield Wednesday, claiming his tendency to drop deep meant he suits the role.
Farke’s number ten role is not the archetypal creative midfielder that the likes of Mesut Ozil and David Silva have been in years gone by. He essentially wants a goalscorer playing deeper to influence the game more before arriving in the box for opportunities – perhaps of the ilk of Frank Lampard.
The reasoning for dropping Piroe deeper was that he tends to come deep in search of the ball before arriving late, but ultimately he is more of a number nine as he showed at Swansea. For Summerville, it seems more than getting him more active in play has benefited his game.
Summerville has been deployed on the wing throughout his time at Leeds United – but, looking at the stats, his influence has been more in the central areas when he has performed so far this season.
Looking at the games against Sheffield Wednesday, Salford City and Cardiff City, a clear pattern has emerged. Summerville is deployed initially as a winger but is allowed to float inside and influence the game from the middle, getting on the ball more while also being allowed to make deeper runs.
In the opening game of the season against Cardiff, Summerville started as a right-winger, but his average position shows a more central role in between Luis Sinisterra, who started in the middle, and Wilfried Gnonto, who started up front.
He received 79 touches of the ball, got an assist as well as a late equaliser, but lost possession 21 times with the central role putting more burden on his creativity, which has grown with experience.
Then, in the Carabao Cup clash with Salford, Summerville played even further forward, with his average position almost alongside Gnonto up front despite starting the game on the left-hand side. Again, he received more of the ball with 83 touches, making two key passes, winning 12 of his 15 ground duels, but again losing the ball 19 times.
The last example is in Leeds’ most recent Championship clash with Sheffield Wednesday, where again he was deployed on the right but is shown to have played as his side’s most advanced player, ahead of both recognised strikers Georginio Rutter and Piroe.
Despite the lack of inspiration in this particular game, Summerville’s stats still stand out when deployed in the middle, having created one big chance, made two key passes and, in a slightly different role, making a number of runs beyond the defensive line. [Sofascore].
The new position for Summerville will not have been obvious on paper, but Farke’s influence is slowly growing on the 21-year-old. Learning the new position will take time, but his performances so far this season have shown that Farke may have spotted something nobody else had from his skillset.
In other Leeds United news, the club can already see what a brilliant new arrival will offer them.