Daniel Farke will be hoping that Sunday’s brace against Swansea will be the explosion that Manor Solomon needed to kickstart not only his Leeds United loan, but his career.
Signing on loan from Tottenham in the summer, many felt that Leeds had pulled off a bit of a coup to land the Israel skipper. A player that’s starred in the Premier League and played in the Champions League.
But he joined Leeds after a year on the sidelines with a meniscus injury and while impressing on debut against Hull, he struggled since. A mistake for Burnley’s winner, Solomon then picked up a back injury.
However, Solomon has started two consecutive games for Leeds. One against QPR before the break and then on Sunday at Swansea, with two excellent results with Israel coming in between during the break.
The stat that shows Manor Solomon is key to Daniel Farke’s tactics
Solomon might have only started four of Leeds’ 16 Championship games but one element of his game is becoming clearer and clearer, and it is crucial to the way that Daniel Farke wants his Leeds side to play.
Focus on attacking football and controlling games to stifle the opposition, winning the ball high up the pitch and keeping teams in their half, especially as Meslier’s shot percentage is the league’s 18th-best.
Solomon is key to that. The on-loan Leeds star is the second-best in the entire Championship for winning the ball back in the final third, averaging a total of 1.4 per 90 minutes and clocking up a total of seven.
Manor Solomon has got to start against Luton on Wednesday
Largie Ramazani is back from an ankle injury, Dan James got two assists and arguably three against his old side on Sunday and of course, Wilfried Gnonto came off the bench to score the winner in injury time.
| Name | Club | Games (Starts) | Total tackles in final third | Per 90 |
| Djeidi Gassama | Sheffield Wednesday | 13 (8) | 14 | 1.8 |
| Manor Solomon | Leeds | 9 (4) | 7 | 1.4 |
| Fally Mayulu | Bristol City | 10 (1) | 3 | 1.3 |
| Callum Lang | Portsmouth | 12 (12) | 15 | 1.3 |
With Leeds using a high press to keep opponents penned in and therefore, controlling games, Solomon is clearly key to that. Leeds’ next-best is Mateo Joseph, way down in 26th place in the entire Championship.
It shows that Solomon is clearly good at winning the ball back in the final third and having scored twice against Swansea, Farke has got to keep the Tottenham man in the starting line-up when Leeds face Luton.
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