Leeds United did not sign a central midfield player throughout seven transfer windows between January 2018 and June 2022. This meant that when it came time to replace players like Mateusz Klich, Adam Forshaw, and Kalvin Phillips, there would need to be a major shake-up at the position.

Within the course of a year, Marc Roca, Tyler Adams, and Weston McKennie arrived and went. Their departures last summer were caused by a variety of factors, including their poor performance, stylistic incompatibility, injuries, and exit clauses. At first glance, Leeds appeared to be starting over, requiring a completely new midfield lineup following their audacious declaration of their goal to return to the Premier League at the first opportunity. That’s a big job.

They promoted one from the Under-21s and signed three players for a total of £17 million in a matter of weeks, which is less than what was paid for Adams alone. Leeds is therefore arguably more stocked than any of its divisional or positional competitors. Three of them are current full internationals who, despite having distinctly different skill sets, play the positions Daniel Farke has assigned them. The other is a versatile England youth international who, having not yet turned 18, is approaching 3,000 senior minutes in his first season as a professional football player.

When Pascal Struijk sustained an injury towards the end of December, there were concerns that if Ampadu were to vacate midfield and fill in at centre-half, Leeds might find themselves overrun in midfield. The opposite has been the ca

It would be incorrect to claim that Leeds’ hiring, integrating, and use of Archie Grey, Glen Kamara, Ilia Gruev, and Ethan Ampadu is anything other than an absolute triumph. Although Farke is quick to emphasise that this team is not yet perfect, it is hard to conceive a midfield quartet that performs any worse than this one when they alternate positions and play next to one another in different pairings.

Ilia Gruev has been patiently waiting his turn on the bench as a replacement, raising the question: Can the Bulgarian play defensive midfield just as well as Ampadu?

Gruev has averaged 94% pass accuracy during Leeds’ last six games, even though Plymouth Argyle, Cardiff City, Preston North End, Norwich City, and Bristol City aren’t the worst group of possible opponents this division has to offer. The 23-year-old has also shown that he is capable of neatly regaining possession of the ball, tailgating opponents and waiting for the right moment to slide in and reclaim it before playing forward into space with composure. Recent performances have been similar to those of the classic, contemporary, two-way defensive midfield player, dubbed “Bulgarian Busquets” by certain fans on social media.

As Leeds head into the last third of this 2023–24 season, supporters seem oddly calm, believing that the team’s alternatives in centre midfield can perform well regardless of the lineup. Ampadu was given a break when Leeds defeated Plymouth at Home Park in the middle of the week to secure a spot in the FA Cup Last 16. It was in 2003, three years before Grey was born, when Leeds made their last trip to the quarterfinals. Gruev played the entire match in Devon. After 71 minutes, Kamara was substituted with an assist. The 17-year-old took over at right-back and played extra time as Gruev was relied upon to act as a lone pivot as Leeds’ youthful offence ran wild adding three further goals.

In general, ‘The Midfield’ serves as the ideal springboard for the Whites’ formidable assault, which has racked up innumerable goals and assists between them in the first two thirds of the current campaign. The formidable attack line and Farke’s midfield never seem to slow down or falter despite playing two games a week, having to contend with two different opponents, or the fact that they are still in their rookie campaigns at Elland Road. If anything, their willingness to adjust to a new situation and their response to hardship during a shaky Christmas season indicate that if they need to shift gears, it will be upward into fourth and fifth rather than downward into second or first. The converse is true for their standing in the

Even if there is still a tonne of football to be played, the regular season will end in three months, and then the thrilling play-offs will start. New hopes for automatic promotion have emerged in recent weeks, as Leeds has gone eight games without a loss in all competitions since the start of the season, suggesting that they are not and will not give up on overtaking teams like Southampton, Leicester City, and Ipswich Town.

A serious injury to one of Farke’s generals in the middle of the pitch would cause some worry, but not the kind of widespread panic that Adams and Phillips’ extended absences caused in previous seasons. Leeds won’t have to rely on central defenders to step in further forward either, as Pascal Struijk’s time as a defensive midfielder is over and the 2024 version of Robin Koch won’t be needed in midfield like the German was occasionally. To put it mildly, neither was a very good temporary fix.

Leeds now have a midfield again, and it isn’t dependent on the indigenous hero to the extent that it becomes dysfunctional without him or needs a metronomic Klich to play 92 games in a row. Farke has choices, all of them equally good. Finally