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Four Questions Why Leeds united sign Star Player Rasmus Kristensen
Rasmus Kristensen photo
Leeds United were relegated from the Premier League earlier this year and went through a mass summer of change during the transfer window
Who left Leeds United this summer?
Alongside manager Sam Allardyce, who was replaced by Daniel Farke, the Whites allowed a staggering 15 players to depart the club either on loan or permanently
The Yorkshire-based outfit moved on a number of first-team stars, alongside a few of their younger players to gain experience, to shift the mood amongst the group in preparation to attack the Championship with a positive mindset under the German head coach.
One of the players who moved on was right-back Rasmus Kristensen and, as it stands, the decision to sign him in 2022 was a huge howler by then-manager Jesse Marsch, before his departure later that season.
In June of last year, the American head coach snapped the defender up from his former club RB Salzburg for a reported fee of £10m, whilst netsport claimed that he was also a target for German giants Borussia Dortmund and Premier League side Brentford.
He was also on a reported wage of £40k-per-week throughout the 2022/23 campaign, which added an extra £2m to the amount of money they paid for his services last term.
It was a significant fee to pay for a player who had yet to prove himself in a major European league, albeit he had played 27 matches for Ajax earlier in his career, and the gamble did not come off for the Whites.
Why did Leeds sign Rasmus Kristensen?
Marsch snapped him up after a campaign of sublime performances for Salzburg during the 2021/22 campaign that suggested that he had the potential to be a superb signing for the club.
Kristensen averaged a phenomenal Sofascore rating of 7.31 across 29 Bundesliga matches as he caught the eye with his displays at both ends of the pitch, whilst no outfield player for Leeds managed a score higher than 6.99 that season.
The marauding full-back chipped in with seven goals and seven ‘big chances’ created, to go along with an impressive haul of 1.2 key passes per match, for the Austrian side.
He also won 72% of his aerial duels, which highlighted his dominance in the air against opposition forwards, and was only dribbled past 0.4 times per game as players found it difficult to get past him on a regular basis, as per netsport.uk
What happened to Rasmus Kristensen?
Rasmus Kristensen photo
Kristensen was, unfortunately, unable to make the step up to Premier League football after his impressive year with Salzburg in Austria.
The 24-year-old warrior averaged a Sofascore rating of 6.70 across 26 top-flight outings for Leeds as they were relegated to the Championship.
This was the 11th-highest average score within the squad and that suggests that he was far away from being one of the team’s top performers, which does not shine well on the right-back given how poorly the side performed on the road to finishing within the bottom three.
The Denmark international was dribbled past 1.3 times per game throughout the season. Luke Ayling (1.5) was the only defender who was dribbled past more times per match than him, which shows that opposition forwards found it far too easy to take the ball past him week-in-week-out to create chances for their respective sides.
Kristensen did not make up for his sloppy defensive work with quality attacking play from right-back as he rarely created opportunities for his teammates going forward either.
The £10m signing averaged 0.3 key passes per outing for Leeds and created just two ‘big chances’ in total, which led to one assist for the Dane.
To put that in context, 18 players within the Leeds squad averaged more key passes per game than Kristensen, showing that he was one of the worst attacking players on the team as he struggled to make things happen at the top end of the pitch with regularity.
Rasmus Kristensen photo
Where is Rasmus Kristensen now?
The 24-year-old, who was rather harshly described as like a “League One defender” by Leeds YouTuber Conor McGilligan last season, was sent out on loan to Italian giants AS Roma to work with Jose Mourinho this summer.
It appeared to be a fantastic move for the Danish defender on paper, given his poor performances for Leeds, but it has not gone to plan for him so far.
He averaged a dismal netsport rating of 6.44 and scored one own goal across his five pre-season friendly appearances with the Serie A outfit and carried that form into the opening match of the league season with a rating of 6.4 against Salernitana.
Mourinho gave him another chance from the start against Verona in their next Serie A clash but embarrassingly substituted him at half-time, which led to the Whites flop being an unused substitute for their most recent game against AC Milan.
Kristensen has been dealt another blow this week as the Portuguese head coach has opted to exclude him from the club’s squad for the Europa League group stages this season.
This does not bode well for his chances of being a regular starter in the Serie A for the remainder of the campaign as the former Chelsea manager seemingly has other options that he would prefer to use.
A lack of time on the pitch this season with Roma could be more bad news for Leeds as it is likely to lower his possible resell value even further. Indeed, any onlooking clubs are currently seeing him struggle at a second club for a successive year and may be wary of spending money to sign him.
This could affect their chances of being able to cash in on the Danish defender next summer, or in January if Roma opt to cut the loan deal short.
Overall, this transfer has certainly turned out to be a huge howler by Marsch and one that has been an expensive failure for Leeds, barring a miraculous turnaround in fortunes and performances before his time at Elland Road comes to an end.
