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This article is part of Football FanCast’s In Numbers series, which takes a statistical look at performances, season-long form and reported transfer targets…
According to The Sun’s Alan Nixon, Leeds United are one of a number of clubs chasing Jordan Hugill this summer.
The Whites are in need of a striker after their inability to put away chances cost them a place in the Premier League.
Indeed, the Yorkshire club had the worst conversion rate of any team in the Championship.
Marcelo Bielsa’s system hasn’t steered Leeds too far wrong, and it would be surprising to see him veer away from the 4-1-4-1 formation he has favoured since his arrival at the club.
The above infographic takes stats from one of Hugill’s performances last year that perfectly encapsulates what he would bring to Elland Road, but also why he wouldn’t fit into Bielsa’s system or solve the Whites’ problems up top.
The first thing to note is that Hugill was playing up top on his own on this day, and his pass success rate was just 37.5 per cent. The striker is strong and can hold up the ball, but when he is up top on his own the majority of his passes don’t find the mark.
Even the passes he did make weren’t all that effective as he failed to a make a single key pass at Pride Park in January.
He did win an impressive 10 aerial duels however, but Bielsa’s side aren’t reliant on winning headers up top as they contested only 44.9 aerial duels per game last season, which is one of the lowest tallies in the Championship.
He also took three shots in that match and managed only one on target indicating that he wouldn’t be a huge help when it comes to Leeds’ conversion rate problems.
Hugill isn’t best equipped playing as a lone striker, and it is hard to believe that Bielsa will change his entire system to accommodate a forward who scored just six times last term.