Leeds United have suffered terribly with injuries in 2021/22 and it is undeniably a huge reason for the fact they are fighting for the lives at the bottom of the Premier League. However, it would be wrong to state that this has simply been bad luck, since Leeds have operated with the smallest squad in the division by choice.
When injuries have struck, they have badly lacked the quality to cover in order to compete in the top flight. Former Leeds goalkeeper, Paul Robinson has criticised the club's policy to keep the squad small and not add more quality, both in the summer and in January, when it was clear the team were badly struggling.
Speaking on BBC Football Daily, the ex-England international said: "You look at the recruitment side and there's two sides to this. A lot of people will say that it's [Marcelo] Bielsa and he wanted to work with a small squad but you look at Angus Kinnear's programme notes the week before the end of the January transfer window, almost bracing supporters for the fact that they weren't going to sign anybody. He said that they weren't going to sign anybody that they didn't feel were as good as the youngsters that they had and he didn't want it to be a detriment to their development.
"All of a sudden, you read that and you think 'ok, they're not going to sign anybody.' But they haven't signed a central midfielder for the past four seasons. That's eight transfer windows that they've not signed a midfielder and they've been without Kalvin Phillips for 60% of the season."
Robinson felt that the club's biggest error was to not sign another striker in January, after they had badly struggled without Patrick Bamford in the first half of the season. He continued:
"But the one for me is Patrick Bamford. He's so integral of what they do and the way they play with a number nine. They don't have a number nine, they've played Rodrigo there, Dan James there, they've tried to play with a false nine but they knew it January he was going to be out for the majority of the season. Why not get a replacement or a stop-gap, somebody who can do that job?"
Leeds will surely look to address their recruitment mistakes this summer. However, the level of player Victor Orta will be able to attract could be drastically different, depending on how the final few games of the season pan out.
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