Leeds United

Leeds United: Phil Hay talks about Ben White and Robin Koch

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Image for Leeds United: Phil Hay talks about Ben White and Robin Koch

Phil Hay has been speaking on the latest edition of The Athletic’s The Phil Hay Show about all things relating to Leeds United.

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Starting with an easy one what shirt number does Bamford wear for Leeds United?

One of the topics that came up during the episode was the Whites’ deal for Robin Koch and how he has done since he moved from the Bundesliga to the Premier League.

While he was talking about this, he mentioned former Leeds man Ben White, who was the subject of three bids from Marcelo Bielsa’s side in the last transfer window, only for all of them to be rejected.

White instead stayed with Brighton & Hove Albion and signed a new contract with the Seagulls after a successful loan spell with Leeds last season in which he started all 46 Championship games and turned in a solid average rating of 7.09.

However, Hay does not think that if the Whites had signed the 23-year-old he would have been guaranteed to be better than Koch.

He said: “I think it is probably presumptuous to assume that White would have been any better in these games.

“As exceptional as he was in the Championship, you do get away with a little bit more there [than in the Premier League].”

Who is better?

Ben White

Ben White

Robin Koch

Robin Koch

TIF Thoughts on White and Hay’s view on him…

If you compare White to Koch in the Premier League this season, you will see that both have had problems with consistency in their performances; however, it is the Brighton man who has the better overall rating at 6.73/10 compared with 6.63/10, as per WhoScored.

White has also made more tackles per game, while Koch has made more interceptions and won more aerial duels per game.

So, if you are comparing them, they have been very similar this season, and considering that the Whites paid £11.7m for Koch compared to the £25m bid that they had rejected for White, we can’t really say that Leeds should have signed White instead.

However, we feel that both players have not actually played that well in the Premier League, and we will be keen to see them both improve their consistency as the season goes on.

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