MOT View: If Leeds win PL promotion, Victor Orta profile on int’l centre-back may come in handy
Leeds United director of football Victor Orta has confirmed that Freiburg defender Robin Koch is someone he has profiled with the view to potentially signing him one day.
Koch, 23, is a very highly-rated German centre-back, who can also play as a defensive midfielder.
Koch’s good form in the Bundesliga for Freiburg saw him earn his first two caps for the German national team at the back-end of last year and it seems as though Leeds have scoped out the former Kaiserslautern ace.
Orta has revealed that he has access to reports on a lot of players and when discussing the way he profiles players, he brought up findings on Koch, who the Spanish transfer chief admits is a tough target for Leeds to sign while they’re in the Championship.
“We have 8,080 reports. In a report about a match you can evaluate six or seven players,” Orta said, as quoted by the Yorkshire Evening Post.
“I’ll give you an example, Koch playing at his level now is really difficult for the Championship, it is another level. But we are always evaluating because perhaps, in a moment, he could be available. Or we could get into another league and then he could be available.
“Our goal is information. Quantity and quality. Quantity is important but much more important is quality information.”
Have Leeds taken a look at Koch because he is someone who they could eye up if they win promotion to the Premier League this season?
As Orta admits, Koch is at another level.
He’s relatively young, playing regularly in the Bundesliga and is a newly-capped international for one of international football’s powerhouses.
If anyone in England is going to sign Koch, then it is bound to be a club in the Premier League.
Leeds will more than likely lose Ben White in the summer when his loan spell at Elland Road comes to an end and that will leave Liam Cooper and Gaetano Berardi as the only senior centre-back options in Marcelo Bielsa’s squad.
Basically, a centre-back will have to be signed in the summer, whether Leeds win promotion or not.
According to WhoScored, Koch has won 3.8 aerial duels per league appearance this season while also averaging 1.1 tackles, 1.4 interceptions, 3.9 clearances and 0.8 blocks per game.
White has averaged 3.1 successful aerial duels, 1.8 tackles, 2.5 interceptions, 3.4 clearances and 0.7 blocks per game in the Championship with Leeds [WhoScored].
The two defenders are quite equally matched when it comes to their stats but it is important to remember one of them is impressing in one of Europe’s top leagues and the other is at the top club in the second-tier of English football.
Koch would be a terrific signing for Leeds if they win promotion.
Let’s hope Orta keeps hold of that report and keeps on adding to it as the season progresses.
In other Leeds United news, it has been confirmed that this striker has left Elland Road.