Leeds United player must look at Charlie Cresswell situation with slight jealousy: View | OneFootball

One striker is well down the pecking order for Daniel Farke's side

Right now, it seems as though the battle to lead the attack for Leeds United is between two particular players. So far this season, it has been Joel Piroe and Mateo Joseph who have been the two called upon by manager Daniel Farke to fill that role, with Joe Gelhardt merely making up the numbers on the bench.

While Piroe has more experience and pedigree of scoring goals at Championship level, the spark provided by the younger Joseph has also generated plenty of excitement around Elland Road.

But as though two compete to get the nod in the starting XI at the club, it does seem as though one other attacking option has become something of a forgotten man for Leeds United.

Joe Gelhardt struggling for game time

Having joined the Whites from Wigan Athletic in the summer of 2020, it did at one point look as though Joe Gelhardt would become an important player for the club.

Although he was still a teenager, the attacker was something of a regular feature at Elland Road the season after his arrival.

Indeed, he even made some vital goal contributions to help Leeds avoid relegation from the Premier League in the 2021/22 season.

However, as the squad was strengthened at Elland Road, he was unable to build on that in the following campaign, and was loaned out to Sunderland in January 2023.

The striker, though, found regular goals hard to come by at the Black Cats, with just three in his 20 outings for the club.

There is a chance that, combined with the other options available to Farke, means that he has struggled for opportunities with the Whites since returning in the summer of 2023.

At that point, Leeds themselves had been relegated back to the Championship, and Gelhardt has since made just 12 Championship appearances since the start of last season.

Only two of those have come during the current campaign, with both as a late substitute, in the win at Sheffield Wednesday and draw with Norwich City.

As a result, it could be argued that Gelhardt himself, may be somewhat jealous of one particular player, who left Elland Road in the summer transfer window.

Charlie Cresswell thriving away from Leeds United

Back in July, centre-back Charlie Cresswell would leave the Whites, in order to sign for French top-flight side Toulouse.

Like Gelhardt, the defender had shown some potential during a handful of appearances for the club prior to their relegation from the Premier League.

He was then loaned out to Millwall for the 2022/23 campaign, following Leeds' drop back into the second-tier of English football.

Despite his performances there proving he is capable at this level, he was, like Gelhardt, unable to force his way into Farke's side last season.

The centre-back managed just five league appearances for the Whites last season, and so - unlike Gelhardt - he did leave Leeds in the summer to join Toulouse.

From a personal perspective, it is a move that seems to have worked out for Cresswell, who has made six league appearances, including four starts for his new club already.

That is, of course, plenty more game time than Gelhardt is getting for Leeds, and indeed, more than he himself amassed over the course of the 2023/24 campaign.

There may, therefore, be a sense of envy towards Cresswell from the striker who, for his part, remains at Elland Road for now.

Both of these players are now 22-years-old, and therefore, at an age where they are going to be thinking about playing regular first-team football in order to take the next steps in their careers.

While Cresswell is now getting the chance to do that with Toulouse, the same cannot really be said of Gelhardt at Leeds at this moment in time.

You wonder, therefore, whether the striker may wish that he had followed his teammate out of the Elland Road exit door back in the summer.

Indeed, Gelhardt has had interest in his services in the recent past, with the likes of Rangers and Celtic linked with him back in January.