Leeds United fans won’t want December to end.
Daniel Farke’s side are yet to lose throughout the festive month, with a 3-1 win over Chelsea in the Premier League the highlight of a busy month until London neighbors Crystal Palace came to town late on Saturday.
Now, when we think about this special game, the 4-1 victory over Oliver Glasner’s normally difficult Eagles will live long in the memory, with The Athletic’s Belen Kross rightly hailing it as an “outstanding performance” immediately after the game.
It was a real team effort that helped them take the three points, but Dominic Calvert-Lewin will once again take away most of the praise after scoring on Saturday night to make his fifth successive Premier League appearance.
How good was Calvert-Lewin’s overall play?
The former Everton marksman scored those two goals against the Eagles and joins a select group of players at Leeds. The dominant centre-forward was hoping the goals would continue to flow as the game unfolded intensely.
Both of his instinctive efforts against Palace showed him to be a confident striker rather than the dud attacker who tends to be a wasteland on Merseyside, with the Sheffield-born threat in the right place and beating the erratic Dean Henderson at the right time on both occasions.
It’s clear that Falke and co are using Calvert-Lewin as an influential focal point, as he also won four duels, with the deadly No. 9 able to hit a double home after just 26 touches.
Ethan Ampadu also had a strong and classy presence throughout, scoring a rare goal and making eight tackles to give the hosts a comfortable three-point advantage.
However, if you take both the aggressive number four and the hot-blooded striker out of the equation, another star performer of the day made the victory a breeze. He arguably performed even better than Calvert-Lewin.
Leeds star better than DCL
Calvert-Lewin is a player worthy of praise, but he often fades in and out of contests. Thankfully, his poacher-like instincts seem to emerge whenever needed.
Anton Stach, on the other hand, never relaxed throughout the 90 minutes against Palace, with the former Hoffenheim midfielder recovering the ball six times in a dramatic win and being a dynamic presence in the middle, winning two duels.
In addition to his constant vigor and drive, Stacchi scored this free-kick at the end of stoppage time, just before the end of the one-sided game, giving Leeds their fourth goal.
If his spectacular free-kick shot to beat Henderson wasn’t enough, his balanced performance was made to look even better as the popular German finished the game with five key passes out of 56 touches, while Calvert-Lewin had just one.
See Statch’s performance in numbers | |
|---|---|
status | stung |
Play time (minutes) | 90 |
Number of points scored | 1 |
assist | 0 |
touch | 56 |
shot | 3 |
exact path | 27/33 (82%) |
key pass | 5 |
accurate cross | 5/10 |
Number of balls collected | 6 |
Total number of duels won | 2/6 |
Statistics by Sofa Score | |
Yorkshire Evening Post journalist Graham Smith said his free-kick that put Henderson on the spot was “beautiful” and gave Statch a high rating of 8/10, with Statch showered with praise after the match for such a sensational performance.
He also scored against Liverpool earlier this month, and it’s clear that the £17.4m new signing was great money spent alongside Stutch in the summer, and was clearly a fan favorite next to the much-talked-about Calvert-Lewin.
It could be argued that Calvert-Lewin, who has scored seven goals in the Premier League, is ahead of Stutch among fans, but it should be noted how effortlessly the No. 18 displayed all the elements of his balanced game against Palace. There’s nothing wild about the shout-outs that suggest he put in an even more impressive performance than the rejuvenated Englishman’s goal-scoring heroics.
Leeds prepare to offer £18m for La Liga striker ahead of Tottenham
Los Blancos are leading the race…
