Leeds United and Sunderland share this player disappointment but Whites had it worse: View | OneFootball

Laurens De Bock offered next to nothing on the pitch in English football, be that with Leeds United or Sunderland.

What was particularly evident for Leeds during the club's 16-year spell in the wilderness outside the Premier League, with a high turnover of squad members, is that they made some odd signings, despite the club look like they have far more stability now.

Leeds have struggled to fill the void left by Charlie Taylor in the left-back role for over half a decade now, with De Bock brought in to hopefully resolve the issue in January 2018 when he signed on a four-and-a-half-year contract.

Going into the January transfer window in 2018, Leeds were in sixth position in the Championship, and only six points off of the automatic promotion places. Thomas Christiansen, in his first season in charge in England, had Leeds in a good place halfway through the season.

De Bock's Leeds career

The main issue for Christiansen was at left-back, with his options at the time the likes of Cameron Borthwick-Jackson and Tom Pearce, with Gjanni Alioski still plying his trade on the wing. That made it, at the time, one of the weaker positions in their squad.

That is why the Whites bought De Bock who many thought would solve Leeds’ left-back problems. Taylor's departure in the summer had left Leeds short of left-footed left-backs with senior first-team experience.

Gaetano Berardi and Vurnon Anita - two right-footed players - were predominantly filling that gap, and De Bock then failed to acclimatise well to English football after his January arrival.

He struggled at full-back throughout the season and did not warrant his long-term deal that Victor Orta handed him that window, despite impressing in Belgium with Club Brugge prior to his January switch.

De Bock featured in just seven games for Leeds, including having an absolute shocker of a game against Derby County. He then, unsurprisingly, lost his starting place to a then 19-year-old Tom Pearce, which spoke volumes.

The main issue was that the now 31-year-old struggled with his positional play and was badly exposed by the pace of the division, with that 2-2 draw at Derby in February an alarmingly bad evening for the recent recruit, in what was a nightmare match at Pride Park.

He would never play for the club again, instead joining a number of sides on loan to run down his contract, with the likes of Oostende, Sunderland, ADO Den Haag, and Zulte Waregem playing him whilst he continued to earn a wage from Leeds until the summer of 2022.

De Bock would remain contracted at Leeds for the remainder of his deal of four-and-a-half years, but that wasn't before he showcased the same issues with the Black Cats. Despite what he served up with Leeds, many thought he may be a decent loan signing for Sunderland in League One.

There, he may have been able to get up to the speed of English football in the division below, but he was thoroughly underwhelming during his stint and there was little remarkable to write home about from his ten appearances.