Goals really haven’t been a problem for Daniel Farke’s Leeds United as their march towards the Premier League continues.
In fact, since suffering their most recent Championship defeat away at Blackburn Rovers in late-November, the league leaders have scored 40 times in just 15 games. An average of 2.6 goals per game.
Joel Piroe continued his fine form against Sheffield United with a ‘fabulous’ long-range strike late on. Dan James is also in double figures now while Manor Solomon and Brenden Aaronson aren’t far behind. Pascal Struijk has five himself from centre-half, two of those coming as Leeds United snatched a victory from the jaws of defeat against Sunderland.
Yet, to say that Leeds’ new-found ruthlessness eases the need for a new centre-forward would be to miss the point a little.
Yes, goals are proving very easy to come by at the moment. But Solomon, the club’s fourth-highest goalscorer, faces an uncertain future on loan from Tottenham Hotspur. Piroe is completely unproven in the Premier League and, as for Daniel Farke’s other centre-forwards, Patrick Bamford hasn’t featured for two months while Mateo Joseph’s own tally stands at a miserly three.
Nice striker Evann Guessand shows why Leeds United like him
No wonder attention is turning towards number nines, then, with the summer only a few months away and promotion in sight. Leeds reportedly like Sunderland’s Wilson Isidor and Norwich City’s Josh Sargent.
Wilson Isidor scored an ‘outstanding’ solo goal at Elland Road last week while Daniel Farke described Sargent as a ‘top striker’ back in January.
Evann Guessand, in contrast, is not quite so well known on English soil. Though that could change sooner rather than later. Leeds are joining Aston Villa and Tottenham in targeting the Nice talisman if reports are to be believed.
Allegedly valued at £20 million, Guessand is eight goals adrift of PSG’s Ousmane Dembele in the Golden Boot race over in France. Yet, while he may not be the most brutally prolific of strikers, sticking the ball in the back of the net is only a fraction of Guessand’s game.
The French press recently highlighted his ‘astonishing ability’ to leave opposition defenders for dead with a burst of speed and feet quicker than Fred Astaire in fast-forward. Guessand also possesses an unselfish streak which may well make him the perfect foil for the likes of James, Willy Gnonto and Solomon, providing the latter stays at Elland Road.
The France-born Ivory Coast international loves to drift wide and drop deep – a player with his speed, agility and ball-carrying would not look out of place as a winger – while opening up spaces for his team mates to charge into.
Guessand’s Ligue 1 masterclass shows why Leeds like him
Guessand took his tally of assists for the season to nine as Nice beat Montpellier 2-0 last time out. Having scored ten times himself, it’s safe to say that Guessand is equal-parts goalscorer, equal-parts creator.
For Nice’s opener, Guessand picked up possession just inside the opposition half. He cantered forward and then had the vision and the technique to execute a perfectly-weighted through-ball in behind for rampaging right-back Jonathan Clauss to finish.
It is the sort of assist James, in particular, relishes.
Nice doubled their lead on the hour mark and Guessand was again the trigger. This time popping up wide on the right, he burst past a Montpellier full-back before delivering a cross which caused havoc in the area. Hachim Boudaoui would eventually tap home.
“Evann Guessand, as always, made the differences,” Le Figaro write in their post-match debrief.
“In a Nice team that was not always inspired, Evann Guessand was a valuable detonator to light the spark twice,” L’Equipe add, another explosive display from the Rocketman of the Riviera.
Across 23 Ligue 1 appearances, meanwhile, Guessand has either scored or assisted no fewer than 16 goals.
“I think Evann is well advanced and more consistent in his performances, but he still has so much room for improvement,” agrees Nice coach Franck Haise. “My concern is to get him to always be more demanding, to go even further, because we don’t know his limits.
“I’m pushing and we’re all pushing him to go even further because he’s a player who has enormous potential.”
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