Leeds United's £65m transfer solution as Farke leaves critics red-faced with Bielsa point

Ruthlessly efficient perfectly sums up this Leeds United side. Have they been blowing teams away with free-flowing football on a regular basis? No. Are they the most attractive team to watch in the Championship? Possibly not.

But their watertight defence has given them a solid base to build from. We are only a third of the way through the season and the Whites have already recorded nine clean sheets. Outstanding work.

Losing Crysencio Summerville and Georginio Rutter in the summer was always going to take away some of their attacking flair and unpredictability. Summerville and Rutter were two of the best players in the division last season.

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Few would dispute the fact that the Whites are not as pleasing on the eye as they were in Farke's first year at the helm. A greater emphasis seems to have been placed on control and starving the opposition of possession. They have worn teams down. It has been more of a pragmatic approach.

Yet only leaders Sunderland have scored more goals (25) than United in the Championship this season. Now the Whites are relying less on individual moments of quality in the final third to bail them out of tough situations. There has been a number of well-worked team goals.

Their home record? The joint-best in the division, having accrued 19 points from a possible 24. And the fixture list has not been kind to United. They have faced eight of the current top 10.

But are all United fans sold on Farke? Far from it. It was impossible to ignore the meltdown on social media after they lost at Millwall last week - their second defeat in 15 matches. Some called for Farke's head and it feels like that will be the case every time United slip up and lose ground on top spot.

It is a weaker Championship than last season. The pressure is on Farke as only promotion will do. However, some perspective is needed. They are one point better off than they were at this stage of last year and are much closer to the top two.

But what about Marcelo Bielsa's title-winning team from the 2019/20 season? Twenty eight points they garnered from 15 outings, one fewer than Farke's men.