The Brenden Aaronson Conundrum 

Football fans can be fickle at times, and Leeds fans are no exception.

Brenden Aaronson’s eight league goals so far this season have exceeded the expectations of most supporters as the American gained plaudits, particularly earlier in the season, for his performances.

However, since the turn of the year, the goal contributions have well and truly dried up. In 2025, Aaronson has started all eleven of Leeds’ league games and has scored just one goal and is yet to register an assist.

Aaronson was never a better player than Georginio Rutter, despite some United fans holding this opinion due to Aaronson’s increased goal output and his pressing abilities, making this version of Daniel Farke’s team seem more balanced.

However, on the other hand, Aaronson is not the worst player to ever play for Leeds, as others may have you believe if you read social media comments.

The truth lies somewhere in the middle.

Aaronson is a player that, whilst being a downgrade in the number 10 role compared to Rutter last year, has contributed well at times to this Leeds team that sits at the top of the table.

He has evidently improved certain areas of his game, particularly in front of goal, as previously mentioned, with his work rate and ability to receive the ball on the half turn in tight pockets also being useful attributes, but Aaronson can be a very frustrating player to watch.

His poor ball striking capabilities, as well as his tendency to drift out of games whilst frequently misjudging his weight of pass, are not things you look for when recruiting a player to play in the number 10 role.

Aaronson is ultimately a player that, whilst not being Leeds’ long-term solution in his position, is good enough for the here and now but finds himself on a poor run of form.

So, what should Daniel Farke do?

Piroe in the 10, with Joseph leading the line

In recent games, we have seen Farke starting to opt for the alternative of dropping Joel Piroe back into the hole with Mateo Joseph replacing Aaronson to lead the line.

Whilst supporters have been right in their criticisms of Joseph’s finishing this season, his pressing, pace and relentless work rate up top can stretch defensive backlines and afford Piroe the space to operate in and around the edge of the box and produce more thunderbolts like the one we saw against Sheffield United.

This role also allows Piroe to avoid the physical confrontation with centre-backs and focus on facing the play and sliding the ball in down the line to the wingers with the underrated weight of final pass that he possesses and arrive late in the box to finish attacking moves off.

The one big question with this solution is that we have seen it work later in games when they become more stretched, but can it work immediately from kick-off, or will it leave the Whites too open in midfield earlier on in games?

Start Gnonto and move Solomon inside

Given the recent good form of Dan James and Manor Solomon, it seems extremely harsh that players of Largie Ramazani and Willy Gnonto’s quality have been limited to late cameo appearances over recent weeks, particularly when you consider that Aaronson has retained his starting position despite his poor form.

Aaronson has played considerably more minutes than Gnonto this season, but despite this, he has less creative output.

Gnonto has 5 assists this season compared to Aaronson’s 2 despite playing over a thousand minutes fewer. Gnonto has also created 9 big chances this season, which is three more than Aaronson.

Dropping Aaronson and moving Manor Solomon inside would allow Gnonto to play on the left wing, which is something we have not seen too frequently under Farke with the likes of Crysencio Summerville, Solomon and Ramazani primarily operating down the left with Gnonto playing his minutes out on the right wing.

Moving Gnonto over to the left allows him to play in the position that he first played in when he burst into the first team when Leeds were in the Premier League, where we have seen he likes to cut inside and drill his shots towards the near post, like the one he scored at Old Trafford against Manchester United.

Solomon would then move into the number 10 role where he could showcase his creativity and technique with the Israeli being one of the Whites' most creative players this season whilst allowing both wings now to carry the threat of pace with James and Gnonto.

Stick with Aaronson

The most probable scenario Farke will opt for will likely be to stick with starting Aaronson.

As arrogant as it may seem, even if Aaronson’s form continued in a similar vein from now until the end of the season, Leeds are still likely to gain promotion regardless with 11 games remaining.

On paper, Aaronson’s lack of assists compared to the likes of Gnonto, Solomon, and James does make for pretty grim reading for the American playmaker; however, they do not tell the full story.

Aaronson has an Expected Assists this season of 4.40 compared to Solomon, for example, whose Expected Assists sits at 4.08. Despite this, Solomon has five more assists than Aaronson, so perhaps Aaronson has been unlucky at stages this season.

One thing is for certain though, even if he continues to start, Aaronson’s performances will need to improve if he does not want to be the one subbed early by Farke, as we have seen in recent weeks with the amount of talent Leeds have on the bench desperate to force their way into the team.