Leeds United central midfielder Sean Longstaff has established himself as one of the first names on the teamsheet in the middle of the park since his move to the club in the summer.
The Whites swooped to sign him from Premier League rivals Newcastle United in a deal worth up to £15m to compete with the likes of Ao Tanaka, Ethan Ampadu, Anton Stach, and Ilia Gruev.
Longstaff’s experience in the top-flight with the Magpies has helped him to hit the ground running at Elland Road with some impressive showings in midfield.
The 27-year-old star’s breakout performance for Daniel Farke’s side came in the 2-2 draw with Bournemouth last week, as he scored and assisted a goal.
His fantastic strike, as shown in the clip above, should have been enough to claim all three points for Leeds, but a stoppage-time equaliser meant that they had to settle for one.
Unfortunately, though, the English midfielder was not at his very best in the club’s narrow 2-1 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur at Elland Road on Saturday.
How Sean Longstaff performed against Spurs
The former Newcastle man lined up in the middle of the park alongside Stach and Ampadu once again, as they have started to form an impressive unit in midfield.
However, Longstaff did not continue his impressive form. Instead, the Englishman was a bit too easy to play against at times for the likes of Rodrigo Bentancur and Xavi Simons.
The experienced star was dribbled past three times in midfield, losing half (5/10) of his duels, per Sofascore, which shows that the Spurs players got the better of him too many times.
His part in Mathys Tel’s opening goal summed up his overall performance. Longstaff failed to control a bouncing ball in the middle of the park and then got outmuscled by Bentancur on the turn, which then teed up Mohammed Kudus to set Tel away for his strike.
The Newcastle academy graduate could have prevented the goal by adjusting his body to control the ball from the initial header forward from Spurs, shielding Bentancur out of contention to take it off him.
Minutes
90
Key passes
5
Shots
4
Shots on target
0
Tackles made
4
Dribbled past
3x
Duels won
5/10
As you can see in the table above, it was not an utterly dreadful performance from the central midfielder, who created five chances for his teammates and made four tackles.
However, all four of his shots failed to find the target, he was dribbled past three times, he lost half of his duels, and he was partially to blame for Tel’s goal.
His underwhelming display should not be a cause for too much concern, though, because it was against the Europa League champions and he has shown that he can put in some excellent showings for Leeds.
Meanwhile, though, one of his teammates put in another concerning performance that may sound some alarm bells, as he is on course to become a flop if things do not improve.
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The Championship champions swooped to add some Premier League experience to their frontline during the summer transfer window, with the addition of Dominic Calvert-Lewin on a free transfer from Everton.
Unfortunately, though, there have been more worrying performances than there have been impressive ones since he made the switch to Elland Road in August.
Why Dominic Calvert-Lewin may become a Leeds flop
Bringing the 28-year-old in, even on a free transfer, was always going to be a gamble by the club because of his output in recent seasons for the Toffees.
Calvert-Lewin scored three goals from 6.75 xG in the 2024/25 season, seven goals from 12.93 xG in the 2023/24 season, and two goals from 5.84 xG in the 2022/23 season in the Premier League for Everton, per Sofascore.
This shows that Leeds signed a player who had struggled badly in front of goal for at least three seasons, underperforming against his xG in all three of those campaigns.
Calvert-Lewin’s debut for Leeds, as shown in the graphic above, did little to ease any concerns about his ability in front of goal, as he missed four ‘big chances’ and a penalty in the club’s loss to Sheffield Wednesday in the League Cup.
The former England international did score an impressive header against Wolverhampton Wanderers in a 3-1 win for the Whites last month, but that is his only goal for the club to date.
Calvert-Lewin had a big chance to find the back of the net against Spurs on Saturday, when Noah Okafor pressed the defence into a mistake, but the experienced striker fired his effort high and wide of Guglielmo Vicario’s goal.
The English centre-forward was even worse than Longstaff against the Lilywhites because he struggled with his play in and out of possession of the ball.
Minutes
90
Shots
2
Big chances missed
1
Big chances created
0
Dribbles completed
0/3
Ground duels won
0/6
Aerial duels won
2/5
Fouls committed
3
As you can see in the table above, Calvert-Lewin lost the vast majority of his duels, failed in all three of his attempted dribbles, and missed a ‘big chance’, which was the aforementioned one that he fired over the bar.
This shows that he was even worse than Longstaff, who at least won half of his duels and created five chances for the team, and the striker is now in danger of becoming the next Pierre-Michel Lasogga at Elland Road.
The German striker spent the 2017/18 campaign on loan at the club in the Championship and scored ten goals in 31 league matches, but his general play was less-than-impressive.
Former Leeds forward Noel Whelan once criticised the brute number nine, who was on loan from Hamburg, saying: “He looked heavy, he looked leggy, he looked slow.”
Unfortunately, some of those criticisms could also be levelled at Calvert-Lewin, who has lost 63% of his duels and completed just 17% of his attempted dribbles in the Premier League this season, per Sofascore, to go along with one goal and five ‘big chances’ missed.
The former Everton attacker is in danger of becoming the new Lasogga at Elland Road because of how clunky he has looked on the ball and how sloppy he has been in front of goal.
Calvert-Lewin must finally find his form in front of goal and start to become more reliable with the ball at his feet and in duels with opposition defenders if he wants to avoid going down as a flop in West Yorkshire.