Leeds United: CIES ranks Joe Gelhardt as worst player this past month

Leeds United forward Joe Gelhardt has been ranked as the club’s lowest performing player over the last month.

That is according to CIES Football Observatory’s player rankings, which rates players on a match-by-match basis using data from OptaPro.

Gelhardt has been given a rating of 61/100 for his performances over the last month, which was the lowest of any Leeds player.

This suggests that the forward has performed to a below-average level. 

However, there are plenty of factors which can impact a player’s performance, so we have taken an in-depth look at the statistics of Gelhardt’s performances over the last month.

Strikers will always be judged on their goalscoring record and ability to win matches by providing that cutting edge to turn draws into wins.

Unfortunately for Gelhardt, the striker has been unable to find the back of the net in his three Premier League appearances over the last month. 

However, it seems a little unfair to judge a striker’s goal record on the basis of 111 minutes played over three matches, and therefore we must delve further into the 20-year-old’s performances.

According to SofaScore, Gelhardt earned a poor rating of 6.3/10 for his performance in the Whites’ 5-2 defeat at Brentford, suggesting that it is more than a lack of goals which has impacted his rating.

Whilst the Liverpool-born striker’s passing accuracy seemed to be at an acceptable level (he completed 12 out of 13 attempted passes), his ability to retain possession seemed to be off point on the day.

The Leeds prospect, who joined for £900k, lost possession eight times throughout his 59 minutes on the pitch and only won one of his aerial and ground duels from a combined eight, suggesting that he was not an effective presence in that centre-forward role.

WhoScored provides an even more damning rating of the striker’s performance at the Gtech Community Stadium, awarding the Leeds man with a rating of 5.87/10, with the forward only being able to get three shots off and therefore proving to be an ineffective presence for the away side.

Despite the fact that we do feel it is harsh to label Gelhardt as the worst-performing Leeds player on the basis of under two hours of action, we do think that Jesse Marsch’s striker does need to make more of an impact during his limited time on the pitch, as he may not be able to complain about that ranking if his form fails to pick up.