Leeds United head into Thursday night’s Premier League assembly with Leicester City in a disappointing run of type, as, after profitable three of their opening 4 fixtures in all competitions in 2022/23, Jesse Marsch’s facet are actually with no win of their final six video games.
Although, regardless of the 1-0 loss to Arsenal final weekend, the Whites’ efficiency towards the table-toppers can have given the 48-year-old supervisor an excessive amount of confidence heading into tonight’s assembly with the bottom-of-the-table Foxes.
Indeed, following Patrick Bamford’s introduction at half-time towards the Gunners, Leeds had been extremely unfortunate to go away the sport with nothing, because the striker noticed an equaliser dominated out for a push on Gabriel Magalhaes, missed a penalty and initially appeared to have one other alternative to attract his crew stage from the spot earlier than VAR overturned the choice to award a penalty.
However, whereas the 29-year-old finally failed to drag his facet stage, the England worldwide’s second-half show represented a stark distinction from the one turned in by Rodrigo within the first 45-minutes of the match – with the 31-year-old providing his facet little or no throughout his time on the pitch.
Indeed, the Spaniard noticed all three of his makes an attempt at purpose blocked, accomplished a complete of simply 14 passes and misplaced possession of the ball on six events, whereas the £58k-per-week ahead was additionally at fault for what proved to be the customer’s winner – together with his crossfield swap to Pascal Struijk being intercepted by Martin Odegaard, who then arrange Bukayo Saka to present Arsenal the lead.
Following this show, Leeds Live journalist Beren Cross awarded the attacker a four in his participant scores – the worst given to any of the Leeds facet on the day – in addition to stating of the £6m-rated ahead’s efficiency:
“What started out as a promising display turned into one of the worst errors of the season with a bizarre, pitch-wide cross from right to left, backwards into Struijk, which ultimately put the Leeds goal in harm’s way. Confidence was shattered from there on and a half-time hook seemed inevitable.”
As such, contemplating the Spain worldwide’s “shocker” – within the phrases of Cross – towards the Gunners, coupled with Bamford’s electrical introduction at half-time, it could very a lot seem as if Marsch merely must drop Rodrigo on the King Power Stadium this night, because the striker might properly price his facet dearly in a fixture the Whites can not afford to lose.
