The step up from the Championship to the Premier League is a difficult one to make, as Leeds United have found out so far this season with 11 points from 11 games.
Joel Piroe is a player who perfectly illustrates the gap between the two divisions. He was the top goalscorer in the second tier with 19 goals last season, yet he has no goals in five Premier League games and has been an unused substitute five times, per Sofascore.
As Daniel Farke learns more and more about his players in the top-flight, other stars from the 2024/25 campaign may end up losing their place in the starting line-up, as Piroe did.
Club captain and starting defensive midfielder Ethan Ampadu has started all nine of his appearances in the Premier League this season, but he is not undroppable.
Why Ethan Ampadu is not undroppable for Leeds
The Wales international has been a fantastic player for the club since his move from Chelsea in the summer of 2023, leading the Whites to the title as captain last term.
Ampadu is not undroppable, though, as some of his performances in the number six position for Leeds in the Premier League have left a little bit to be desired from, most recently against Nottingham Forest.
Minutes
90
Pass accuracy
76%
Possession lost
15x
Tackles won
1
Ground duels won
3/7
Aerial duels won
1/2
Fouls committed
3
Dribbled past
1x
As you can see in the table above, the Welsh midfielder lost the majority of his ground duels and was dribbled past as many times as he completed a tackle, which shows that it was a bit too easy for the Forest midfielders to get the better of him.
Per FotMob, Ampadu ranks within the bottom 40% of midfielders in the division for being dribbled past (four times) and the bottom 39% for aerial duel success rate (50%). This shows that his issues against Forest were not isolated incidents.
With this in mind, Farke could improve the robustness of his midfield by ruthlessly dropping the skipper to unleash Anton Stach in a new role as the number six.
Why Leeds should play Anton Stach over Ethan Ampadu
Per Transfermarkt, all of the German midfielder’s starts in the Premier League this season have been as a central midfielder or as an attacking midfielder. That is despite the fact that he has more starts in his career (138) as a defensive midfielder than in any other role.
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AllLeedsTV presenter Oscar Marrio, who claimed Stach “was cooking” earlier in the season, recently noted that the 6 foot 4 star “excelled” for Hoffenheim as a number six, earning him a comparison to Arsenal star Declan Rice.
Stach’s defensive output as a central midfielder in the Premier League so far this term suggests that he does have the potential to offer more security in front of the defence than Ampadu has.
Tackles won
23
15
Duels won
39
49
Duel success rate
57%
60%
Aerial duels won
8
17
Aerial duel success rate
50%
85%
Dribbled past
4x
1x
Fouls committed
16
14
As you can see in the table above, the £17.4m signing from Hoffenheim has outperformed the Welshman in duels, particularly in the air, and has been harder to get past for opposition midfielders.
These statistics suggest that Stach, who has scored one goal in the Premier League this season, could be well-suited to sitting in as the number six in Farke’s 4-3-3 system to provide a physical presence in front of the back four.
Ampadu’s struggles aerially and in allowing players to dribble past him as the number six have been evident, which is why dropping him from the line-up to unleash Stach in a new role, albeit one he has played a lot elsewhere in his career, could be a good move.
That also does not mean that the captain has to completely lose his place in the team. Farke could play the former Chelsea man as one of the two midfielders ahead of Stach, to see if that is a more successful dynamic.
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