Charlie Cresswell, who spent a loan at Millwall, was among the peripheral players who knew their chances of starting games would be considerably boosted when Leeds entered the Championship this season.
Cresswell grew into his time at the New Den last season, becoming a mainstay for the playoff hopefuls, but is now finding opportunities hard to come by.
Due to the presence of Joe Rodon, Pascal Struijk, Ethan Ampadu, and Liam Cooper ahead of the defender in the pecking order, Cresswell is currently arguably the fifth choice at the back.
As a result, he has had extremely little playing time this season; his last club start occurred away at Salford City in August.
He penned a new contract until 2027 back in August, but there have been doubts over his future after he made his frustrations known to Daniel Farke, something that the manager took exception to, freezing him out of the squad for a period.
Journalist Beren Cross of LeedsLive has now offered his assessment of the center-back’s present lack of playing time, stating that he is merely regrettably behind some important players in the hierarchy.
Charlie has experienced a lot of frustration this year. Everyone thinks highly of him and is aware of his exceptional skill as a centre back. Based on his performance at Millwall the previous season, where he was a key member of a squad that nearly made the playoffs, there should have been no hesitation in starting him on a regular basis for Leeds.
“It’s terrible for him that the top defence in the league uses him as their fourth-choice center-back. They have therefore been incredibly reliable, whether it was Rodon and Struijk in the first half of the season or Rodon and Ampadu in the second. Moreover, Charlie regrettably has no justification for Daniel Farke to alter it.
“Rodon is possibly the league’s best centre back.” Charlie would play on the right side of the defence, where he plays.
In terms of what the future holds for Cresswell, it’s hard to really say right now, but an exit could be on the cards. Cross continued:
“It’s just been really frustrating for him. We’ve seen so little of him that it’s impossible to draw any conclusions. He played a little bit in the start of the season and had a few games in August. But since then he hasn’t had a kick, whether for the under-21s or the first-team, so it’s very frustrating. We’ll have to see what happens in the summer.”
Cresswell’s future simply lies away from Leeds
Even while we believed Cresswell had talent, there have been times this season where his play has fallen short of that of players like Rodon, Struijk, and Ampadu.
He shown at Millwall that he is talented enough for the Championship, but putting him in the middle of a team that is vying for promotion is just not up to his current level.
More playing time will enable Cresswell to reach that level very fast, but it is simply not going to happen in this situation.
In order to receive more playing time, he must depart.
