After Stuart Dallas picked up an injury in Leeds United’s most recent Premier League game, Ezgjan Alioski’s absence from the team is being truly being felt this season.
Over the summer, the left-back departed West Yorkshire after a four-year visit where he made 171 appearances, scored 22 goals and helped the team secure promotion back to the Premier League for the first time in 16 years.
In his place, Junior Firpo was signed from Barcelona. However, injury has kept the left-back out of the ream in recent weeks, meaning Dallas has had to fill in that position instead.
In those matches, Leeds have lost twice and drawn once, and now – to make things even worse – the Northern Ireland international had to come off after just nine minutes after picking up an injury early on in the club’s 3-0 away loss against Everton.
It remains unclear as to how long exactly Dallas will be out for, but even before his injury, it has felt as if the Peacocks have missed Alioski.
First of all, just look at the club’s current season compared to how they fared last term. In the previous campaign, Leeds finished ninth in the league and the Macedonian played in all but two of their Premier League matches.
This time out, Leeds seem more likely to be dragged into a relegation battle – they sit in 15th place and six points from safety – than to improve upon their previous league finish.
Part of the problem may well be that Firpo has taken some time to adjust to life in England and certainly suffered a decent amount of criticism for some early performances.
However, on that, Marcelo Bielsa did explain that it also took Alioski time to get used to his methods, saying: “Alioski took a lot of games to stabilise his game and he had been in England for a few years. Junior [is] coming from playing with two teams that play a different rhythm to the Premier League.”
When comparing Firpo and Alioski (as per SofaScore), the former left-back currently has five assists to his name in the Saudi league, as well averaging 2.4 key passes per game, 2.6 tackles per game and o.7 interceptions per game.
The Spaniard has zero assists to his name, averages 0.7 key passes per game, 2.1 tackles per game and 0.6 interceptions per game, so it’s safe to say that Alioski does have the upper-hand, however, he is arguably playing in an easier league at present.
Alioski also averages more key passes than Raphinha, who is averaging 2.1 per game.
Do Leeds miss Ezgjan Alioski?
Yes
No
In particular, it seems that lack of attacking quality from left-back has made Leeds less of a threat this season, partly resulting in their low league position.
While the season is not done yet and Firpo is still adjusting, it’s hard not to feel as if Alioski has really been missed.
In other news: ‘It’s not all bad news’ – Promising Stuart Dallas injury claim emerges for Leeds