Left-back injuries unearthed Leeds United's newest solution after staking number 10 claim

Number 10s became a bone of contention between Leeds United’s fans, manager and boardroom over the course of the summer, but they did technically add one on deadline day. Isaac Schmidt is not your usual full-back.

If your childhood was anything like this correspondent’s, then you were stuck playing at full-back because you were invariably the worst player in your team. Schmidt’s talent ensured he did not grow up as a full-back in Switzerland, he was actually a winger or a number 10 as he came through the ranks at Lausanne-Sport.

Schmidt’s not the first multilingual hybrid full-back to end up at Elland Road via Switzerland either. Ezgjan Alioski arrived, and played, as winger in his first season with Leeds, but Marcelo Bielsa soon put his work rate to task at left-back.

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Schmidt’s versatility was one of the stand-out attributes fans noticed when they began researching him last month. He even came on as a direct replacement for Wilfried Gnonto down the right wing on Saturday in his debut.

“I've played so many positions I can't even know what I like,” he told LeedsLive. “As a youth, I was playing left-winger, right-winger, sometimes number 10 and striker, until I got to the adult games.

“I never played in defence in my life until the first team. Sometimes you’ve got to play in positions you can’t play because you’re a youth. Sometimes I was still playing in games as a striker and winger.”

Schmidt began with Lausanne, his hometown club, where he was moved around the team as a youngster. Indeed, when St Gallen announced his arrival in June 2021, he was still being described as a right-winger who can play in the centre of attack.

He started with the Swiss Super League outfit in another position entirely, though it did not last for long. By January 2022, he was catching people off-guard as a marauding full-back. The rest, as they say, is history.

“After I went to my new club, to St Gallen, we played without wingers,” he said. “I played number eight, which I never played before, but I enjoyed it. To be honest, it was really cool to be in that position, because you see football in another way.

“I finally ended up at left-back. It's quite funny because the left-back was injured, the second one went to Ukraine on transfer in January [2022], the third one was a right-back that was moved to left-back.

“He got injured in the game. This was in the preparation part (winter break) of the season in January and I went to play in that position. First game, everyone was like ‘Wow you can play there really good.’ One game, two games, three games, went through the season and then ended up as a left-back.”

Daniel Farke, we know, has a penchant for full-backs capable of playing on either side of the defence. He has another in Schmidt, who might end up playing just about everywhere for the German before this season is done.

Like any true professional talking to the media, Schmidt, who is right-footed, insists he really has no preference for where he is played.