Leeds United secured their third Premier League win with a long-awaited 2-1 win over West Ham United at Elland Road on Friday night.
Daniel Farke’s side bounced back from a disappointing 2-0 defeat to Burnley at Turf Moor last time out thanks to goals from Joe Rodon and Brenden Aaronson early in the first half.
Part of Los Blancos’ victory was due to Rodon’s performance at the heart of the defence, and he was awarded Sky Sports’ Official Player of the Match award.
Why Joe Rodon was important for Leeds against West Ham
The Wales international put in a solid performance as a centre-back for the West Yorkshire side in the absence of his usual defensive partner Pascal Strujk next to him.
According to Sofascore, Rodon showed composure on the ball by completing 92% of his attempted passes, while also completing 100% of his tackle attempts and completing nine clearances throughout the match.
As well as his impressive all-round performance as a centre-back for the Championship champions, the former Spurs man also scored from a superb corner kick from Sean Longstaff.
Therefore, Rodon played an important role in the team’s results with his excellent performance. But it is his centre-back partner Xhaka Bijol who deserves praise.
Why Leeds can’t drop Xhaka Bijol
The £15m summer signing from Udinese watched Strojk play in the position in his previous game against West Ham in the Premier League on Friday, showing why the club spent so much money on him.
It was about as sure a performance as you can get from a centre-back making his Premier League debut, especially against experienced campaigner and former England centre-forward Callum Wilson for much of the game.
Where Wilson was, Bijol was also there. The former Newcastle United marksman, who scored 89 goals in the top flight, was perfect all night, according to Transfermarkt. In fact, in the second half, when the striker was about to be hit with a shot in the right channel of the box, there was a brilliant clearance.
vs west ham | Joe Rodon | jaka bujol |
|---|---|---|
Pass accuracy | 92% | 95% |
clearance | 9 | 11 |
intercept | 0 | 2 |
Tackle success rate | 100% (1/1) | 100% (2/2) |
Won a ground duel | 2 | 3 |
won an aerial battle | 2 | 3 |
Number of balls collected | 4 | 5 |
Statistics by Sofascore | ||
As you can see from the table above, the Slovenian international made more clearances, tackles, interceptions and recoveries than Rodon, and also won more duels on the deck and in the air.
This shows that the former Udinese giant was even better defensively than the Welshman, as he made more defensive interventions to prevent Lucas Perrie from being made to work more than he did.
Neither centre-back could do much to stop Matheus Fernandes’ goal, but the midfielders were unable to track the Portuguese star between two defenders who entered the box, both of whom were marked by other players.
But overall, it was a great performance from Bujol, and one that may leave supporters wondering why he didn’t feature in all of the games up until Friday night, when he already looked like a force to be reckoned with after just one game.
The 26-year-old star will be hoping that Farke will continue to keep him in the starting XI, piece together a string of performances in the Premier League and form a great partnership with Rodon, who performed well against the Hammers.
