Gabriel Gudmundsson
Gabriel Gudmundsson
Current Club: Leeds United.
Previous Clubs: LOSC Lille, FC Groningen, Halmstads BK.
Loan Clubs: N/A.
International: Sweden 15 caps.
Trophies Won: N/A.
Gudmundsson is a big, strong and quick player, for a full-back, who often are on the shorter side. Defensively he is solid enough, his height (again compared to a lot of full-backs) is an advantage defending set-pieces in particular and he is not afraid to get stuck into a challenge. Like most modern day full-backs, he does tend to get caught up field a fair bit, which hampers his effectiveness at defending, but he is a willing worker and is rarely, if ever, caught strolling back into position while his team is under threat.
His main asset is his attacking. Gudmundsson loves to charge forward and he is decent on the ball, with good technique. I have no idea about his delivery of crosses, as he never put enough in during the matches I watched to get any kind of idea of his ability there. He mainly looked to slide through balls in and that was a mixed bag, but he was playing in tight areas and looking for slide rule passes.
He does like to run with the ball, to break out of defence at pace and look to use his long legs to whip the ball away. It often looks like he has overrun the ball, but his length of stride makes it deceptive and Gudmundsson can often just reach out on the burst and shift a ball aside to avoid an incoming challenge. Whether that skill will transfer against the better level of players in the Premier League over Ligue 1 is questionable, but it does look achievable.
Overall, on the ball, he is very much like an old fashioned push-and-run winger, looking to push the ball ahead of himself to race onto. In fact, he just seemed like a solid full-back, decent at everything, but lacking any real outstanding qualities to elevate himself up to top tier level. For a team like Leeds, newly promoted to the Premier League, he should be a very good addition, the kind of player who will do a job and is unlikely to be a liability when facing Premier League wingers.
At 26 years old, there is unlikely to be much improvement to his game, but he should be a safe pair of hands on their left flank, something they were missing in previous promotions to the Prem. Gudmundsson also comes with the added bonus of being versatile enough to be able to play in midfield or on the wing, if needed. All in all, while maybe not the most exciting addition, he does fill a gaping hole in the team with what should be an upgrade from the previous incumbent, Junior Firpo.
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