Leeds United's Rasmus Kristensen celebrates after the match
Conor McGilligan has admitted he doesn’t know what Rasmus Kristensen brings to Leeds United following his summer move.
The Lowdown: A poor start to Kristensen’s Elland Road career
Kristensen was one of many signings that former manager Jesse Marsch recruited during his tenure that either knew personally or had a connection with them via the Red Bull Group, whom he’d worked extensively with in the past.
The Denmark international joined Leeds fresh off the back of helping RB Salzburg from lifting the Austrian league title, making it three in a row for the right back,
However, that certainly hasn’t been the case as he’s started 13 league games and was dropped in Javi Gracia’s first game in charge against Southampton last weekend and Phil Hay highlighted how he was unconvinced by Kristensen quite early on into the defender’s Leeds career.
The Latest: Something has to change
McGilligan has ripped into Kristensen on his YouTube channel after the failed to impress at centre-back in Leeds’ FA Cup defeat at the hands of Fulham.
He said: (23:30) “I really don’t want to chime in on players but I don’t see his point and just an awful signing and an awful acquisition.
“I don’t know what he brings, I don’t know if he’s a Premier League player and I know a lot of people are going to come back and say [he plays for Denmark] and I understand that but anytime I’ve watched Denmark he doesn’t really get a lot of the ball and when he does he plays it inside, he plays it backwards and it’s not that difficult.”
The journalist then went on to suggest that there are several players more capable than Kristensen already at the club who should be playing ahead of the Denmark international.
He added: (24:30) “There’s no way he’s ahead of Ayling, there’s no way he’s ahead of Drameh for me, there’s a lot of people – who for some reason – still believe he’s technically the best right back in the side.
“Honestly, I must be watching a different game, the guy for me is stiff, rigid, he’s not physical and he’s bad on and off the ball. His positioning – we saw that with Mitrovic last night [Tuesday] when he just lost him.
“I really don’t see what Rasmus Kristensen brings to this Leeds United side and I hope he proves some wrong going forward but I just really don’t get it.”
The Verdict: Kristensen is flattering to deceive
Having cost Leeds £10 million last summer he needed to have performed better than he has done thus far managing to have contributed just one goal involvement all season and has been part of a back four that’s kept two clean sheets when he’s started a league game.
Given that Leeds just handed Luke Ayling a new contract and have a young and promising right back in the form of Cody Drameh, this could be a crucial period of time for Kristensen as to whether or not he’s cut out for both Leeds and the Premier League.
The Dane was likely always going to b afforded some time to adjust given he’d only played in Austria and his homeland of Denmark prior to his move to Elland Road, but given the season is now hitting its maturity, many questions will start to hover around the defender unless his performances improve.
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