Tom Pearce - good enough defensively?

For me the weaknesses we had this season, as we tried to play the Barcelona way, was quite similar to Man City's in that the fullbacks and keeper weren't good enough. Last summer Pep Guardiola spent a fortune on signing fullbacks who were fast and were excellent going forward as well as being decent defensively, he also replaced his ball playing keeper with one that was able to save shots as well as play out from the back. The transformation to the team was immense. At Leeds we had Ayling who played the way TC wanted him to but we never really had someone able to do that on the left (is Pearce good enough to do that?) and I don't think it is a coincidence that our season fell apart when Ayling got injured as despite criticism from a lot of fans he was playing the way TC, and the formation, needed him to as he was popping up all over the pitch and as such it was hard for the opposition to mark him and also meant that if someone did have to try to mark him that somewhere else another Leeds player would have more freedom. In many ways having the fullbacks playing in that way was like having 2 extra men on the pitch as opposition wingers usually wouldn't be working back to pick them up (wingers generally being either lazy or knackered having just ran forward).

I was a little surprised with the DeBock signing as he seemed to be out of favour at his club as they had switched to a more attacking style with the emphasis on the full backs to get forward (albeit I am not 100% sure on the exact formation and it could have been that they were playing 3 centrebacks and 2 out and out wingers rather than wingbacks). Hopefully Pearce can be the answer or DeBock could be if given a chance and a run of games to really settle into the championship way of playing and the various different tactics that teams employ.