"He's an afterthought" - Damning verdict on Leeds United's Joe Gelhardt | OneFootball

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Given his lack of game time so far, Leeds United forward Joe Gelhardt may have been seeking a move away from Elland Road during the January transfer window but has remained past the transfer deadline.

Reports from earlier in the season from the Yorkshire Evening Post stated that he is a player that could have ended up heading out on loan having failed to make much of an impact this season and properly break into Daniel Farke's plans.

Somewhat hampered by injury, he is regularly making the bench when fit, but hardly ever utilised by Leeds' chief, who has a plethora of options in his front line. Gelhardt has featured eight times in total this season, including four starts.

He also notched once in the EFL Cup against Shrewsbury Town before injuring his hand. He also recently sustained a hip issue, and neither of those injuries have helped him to gain any momentum or a foothold in Leeds' first-team plans.

Gelhardt requires regular football at a key stage in his development as a young professional but has not appeared at all in FA Cup clashes recently, despite being on the fringes for Farke.

The 21-year-old's last involvement in a white shirt came in a 1-1 draw with Coventry on December 16th, playing five minutes from the bench as a late substitute.

Leeds could have loaned Gelhardt out in January

FLW’s Leeds United fan pundit Kris Smith doesn't believe that the youngster has ever found his best position under any of the managers at Elland Road and doesn't believe that he will develop well given his lack of game time, but is glad that he remains as a squad option for Farke.

He said: "Gelhardt, for me, is quite a lot like Sam Greenwood, in that he's been stuck in a rut at Leeds where every manager who's had his hands on him hasn't known what his best position is.

"He's been on the fringes because of that, because he's just so hard to fit in.

"In a greedy sense, I wouldn't have liked for him to have gone out on loan, because it would have left us short in the event of injuries, and it would've strengthened a rival, as he would likely have gone to a top half team. "But, the issue is, he does need more playing time. If a club could profile him correctly and find a role in their side that suits him, then he'd be better off on loan. "He's barely making the squad at Leeds, given that, when everyone is fit, he's an afterthought really.

"For the run-in in search of promotion, though? We could do with an extra body for depth, so we're just keeping ourselves safe in that regard."

Joe Gelhardt's role at Leeds

There is no material benefit of Gelhardt sporadically playing, and with so many strikers and wingers ahead of him in any of the forward positions, it is hard to see how he gets much of a look-in without a major injury crisis in Farke's front line.

As Smith alludes to, Gelhardt is also versatile and can operate as a right-winger, or behind the main centre-forward in a secondary-striker role, whilst plenty of his career has been played as a number-nine as well.

That should help the Leeds forward in terms of his place in the pecking order, but he's third choice at best in all the aforementioned roles, and it's difficult to see him playing regularly in the next four months, thus stagnating his development further, and highlighting how poorly handled his first-team involvement has been.