Leeds United have begun preparations for their return to the Championship next season and time is ticking for Daniel Farke to build a squad that can compete ambitiously to achieve an instant bounce back to the Premier League.
Despite not completing the signing of any new additions so far, the club have had a take-over with the 49ers taking full control of the West Yorkshire club, appointed a new head coach and have now started to offload the players who are not prepared to compete in the second tier.
Rodrigo, Robin Koch, Weston McKennie, Rasmus Kristensen, Brendan Aaronson and Deigo Llorente are the first team players from last season who have departed so far, which means that Farke has a real challenge to bolster key positions in the squad.
Considering the former Norwich City boss has an attacking-minded philosophy – a philosophy that has led to him masterminding promotion to the top flight from the Championship twice- there is no doubt that he will be keen to strengthen the forward line to boost goal contributions.
Rodrigo – who was the top goal-scorer for Leeds last season with 15 goals in all competitions – has completed a permanent move to Qatari side Al Rayyan, so replacing his presence in the attacking unit will be absolutely essential this summer to avoid weakening the goal threat in the final third.
One player who has been recently linked with a move to Elland Road is RB Leipzig striker Yussuf Poulsen, an experienced forward who could be an ideal replacement for the former Leeds talisman.
How good is Yussuf Poulsen?
The 29-year-old could be an incredible prospect for Farke, with a wealth of experience playing in an elite league like the Bundesliga, is a proven winner with two German cups to his name, as well as 68 caps earned and 11 goals scored for the Denmark national team.
Over 413 career appearances, Poulsen – once hailed a "machine" by his teammate Willi Orban – has scored 107 goals and registered 73 assists, with a goal contribution every 146 minutes so far, an output that would be highly valuable to Leeds in the absence of Rodrigo.
When comparing the £66k-per-week Danish forward to the Brazilian over last season beyond goal contributions, Poulsen outperformed his Leeds positional peer in a number of key attributes including shots on target rate (46.2% v 37.9%), shot-creating actions per 90 (2.84 v 2.09), goal-creating actions per 90 (0.44 v 0.19) and successful take-ons (66.7% v 41.4%), as per FBref.
Not only that, Poulsen ranks in the top 10% of his positional peers across the top five European leagues for tackles, blocks and aerial duels won, demonstrating confidence in winning the ball in dangerous positions – an attribute that would be a massive advantage against the strong defensive set-ups in the second tier.
With that being said, the signing of Poulsen would be a great piece of business for Leeds if they can strike up a good deal this summer, as the team could really struggle without replacing Rodrigo in the Championship next season.
