Noel Whelan has claimed that Leeds United may be beginning to regret selling Aapo Halme to Barnsley, with Marcelo Bielsa facing something of a shortage at centre-back heading into October’s international break.

Leeds have lost Liam Cooper to a six-week injury, whilst his replacement, Gaetano Berardi, was controversially sent-off in the defeat to Millwall on Saturday, leaving him facing a potential suspension.

Ben White remains the only recognised centre-back with experience in senior football, which has led to Whelan questioning whether Leeds made the right call in offloading Halme – who made four Championship appearances last year – to Barnsley.

He told Football Insider: “Bielsa should not have let Halme go. He has been doing very well at Barnsley and is a promising young centre-back.

“We could do with him now and it was a poor decision to let him go. I’m sure Bielsa will be thinking, ‘goodness, I shouldn’t have sold Halme, that was a big mistake’.”

So, with Whelan’s claims fresh in our mind, we take a look at Halme’s start to the season with Barnsley and whether Leeds could’ve done with him…

In the opening two months of the season, Halme has played 605 minutes of football in the Championship, scoring his first league goal in last week’s 2-2 draw with Derby County.

The Finnish under-21 international has completed 57.2% of his actions successfully (409), making a steady start for the Tykes, despite their struggles in the Championship.

Were Halme to still be a Leeds player, Bielsa would need to feel confident with the defender on the ball, which makes his passing statistics a key factor in this debate.

So far this season, the 21-year-old has a passing accuracy of 72.8%, having made 173 successful passes.

When compared to Leeds’ starting centre-back options – Cooper and White – this makes steady reading, but is far from spectacular, with Cooper pulling in a pass success of 88.8% so far this season and White out in-front with 90.8%.

Moving away from Halme with the ball at his feet, the towering centre-back’s aerial presence is there for all to see. And, he’s won 51.6% of his aerial duels alongside 58.7% of his total duels on the field so far – steady numbers for a player of his age in a struggling Championship side.

But, again, comparing those to Cooper and White shows the gulf in class; Cooper has won 60% of his aerial duels and 67% of his total duels, whilst White has aerial success of over 55% and total duel success of just under 66%.

Of course, Whelan believes Halme would have been a good back-up option to the pair, which maybe means comparing his stats to Berardi would be more use. The Swiss defender has won a similar percentage of duels to the Barnsley centre-back (57.4%), but only 30% aerially – perhaps understandably given his stature.

Whilst you can appreciate Whelan’s claims when comparing Halme’s decent start at Barnsley, you’ve got to look at the bigger picture; he’s 21 and it would be harsh on his development if he was third or fourth choice at Elland Road, because simply, he was never going to break in unless there were injuries to the impressive Cooper or White.

Yes, a loan might’ve been better from Leeds’ point of view given Halme’s potential, but it wouldn't change the fact that he’s not around to solve this current defensive problem.