Leeds United boss Daniel Farke insists that summer signing Isaac Schmidt needs to step up to find more consistency in his performance level to have more chances to play.
The 24-year-old defender was signed from Swiss club St. Gallen in the summer for a fee in the region of £2.5m.
However, Schmidt is yet to have an impact at Elland Road having been on the pitch for just nine minutes.
Farke, while giving an insight into Schmidt’s lack of action for the club, insisted that competition has been one of the reasons behind it.
The rhythm of the Swiss full-back has also been broken by minor injuries and illnesses, which means he must still find a consistency in the level of his performances.
“Lots of competition”, Farke said at a press conference while explaining the absence of the new signing.
“If three other full-backs are chipping in with these performances it’s difficult to be involved.
“Recently he was struggling with a few illnesses and little injuries so it broke his rhythm.
“It has impacted him a little bit in training.
“He needs to step up a bit to find the consistency in his performance level.
“Then he has more chance to be more involved.”
Farke has preferred Jayden Bogle in the right-back position and Junior Firpo in the left-back position for 12 of the 13 Championship matches his team have played so far.
