Talking Tactics | Swansea City v Leeds United

After claiming all three points from their trip to Hull City, Swansea City return to the Swansea.com Stadium to take on Leeds United. 

Ahead of the welcome of Leeds, WhoScored.com preview the clash, looking at what to expect from the visitors, a key battle and a key stat. 

What to expect from Leeds

Daniel Farke’s Leeds come into this fixture on a run of six league wins in a row. 

Most recently, Leeds brushed past Rotherham in a 3-0 victory at Elland Road. Patrick Bamford kicked off proceedings with a goal in the 10th minute before the Championship’s highest-rated player, Crysencio Summerville, added a brace to complete a routine victory.

Leeds currently sit one point adrift of the automatic promotion spots, behind in-form Southampton.

The Whites are unbeaten at Elland Road this season and all six of their defeats have come on their travels. 

Farke has shown a preference to set his side up in a 4-2-3-1 formation this season, which has worked well with their attacking players flourishing in front of goal. Only Leicester (66) and Southampton (60) have scored more league goals than Leeds (55) this season. 

Farke’s side also have the second strongest defence in the league, having conceded only 26 goals this term - with only Leicester conceding fewer - and have kept 13 clean sheets, a total no other Championship side can better.

Ethan Ampadu has been a constant for the Yorkshire side and the Welsh defender has played every single minute of Championship action so far. 

A Key Battle

WhoScored.com’s statistically-calculated strengths for Leeds include counter attacks, protecting the lead and defending set-pieces. However, interestingly, their only statistical weakness is avoiding being caught offside. 

The Whites have been caught offside a total of 70 times – the fourth most of any side in the league - and it is Swansea who top the charts for offsides provoked, catching their opponents offside 81 times so far this season. 

Offsides aside, it has been a memorable campaign thus far for the Leeds attack. Farke’s side boast three players who have reached double figures for goals scored already this season; Summerville (15), Daniel James (10) and Joel Piroe (10). 

Summerville has been the key man for Leeds and is the Championship’s highest-rated player this season with a WhoScored.com rating of 7.83, having won a total of 11 Player of the Match awards. The Dutch winger has contributed 23 goal involvements (15 goals and eight assists) in all competitions, including two in his last outing against Rotherham. 

Swansea will have their work cut out in order to keep Summerville quiet and Ben Cabango will have a big role to play in doing so. 

The 23-year-old Welshman is averaging 1.4 tackles per game so far this season and leads the way amongst Swansea players for clearances, with an average of 4.6 per game the seventh highest such tally in the league. 

In the reverse fixture, Cabango won 100% of his attempted tackles. The defender completed all four tackles successfully, more than any other players in the clash at Elland Road.

A Key Stat

No side in the Championship is averaging more shots per game than Leeds United’s mean of 16 this season. Swansea rank 16th in the league with an average of 11.5 shots per game. 

In the reverse fixture the Yorkshire side had a total of 15 attempts at Elland Road to Swansea’s 10.