Leeds’ Rodrigo conundrum - The Athletic 15/9/21
By Phil Hay
Like most things at the Nou Camp these days, the interest
Barcelona took in Rodrigo at the end of the recent transfer window was
scattergun and haphazard. There were hours to go before the deadline when Leeds
United received contact from Spain and even then Barcelona were talking about a
loan. Last-ditch and doomed to fail, a plan with very high odds.
The nature of the interest, among other reasons, made talks
a non-starter. Loaning out a £27 million signing was nonsensical, it was too
late in the window to think about replacing Rodrigo and in any case, he had
already made it clear to Leeds that he was ready for a second season in
England. Marcelo Bielsa was committed to keeping him too and the story died
before it got going.
The attention Barcelona paid to him was indicative of a few
things. It showed, first of all, that from a distance, Rodrigo’s form and
impact at Elland Road made other clubs think that Leeds might be open to
cutting him loose. It showed that Barcelona, as a consequence of abject disarray,
are no longer trading in the galactico bracket of the transfer market. But it
also showed Rodrigo is highly thought of, well regarded enough to convince a
Champions League club to look at him.
He is well regarded by Bielsa too and Leeds’ head coach will
regret the fact that in between talking about how Rodrigo can settle and thrive
in the Premier League long term, he has twice been compelled to substitute the
30-year-old at half-time this season, and twice in Leeds’ most difficult games.
Manchester United away and Liverpool at home were days when Rodrigo, in theory,
was mixing with opponents of his own calibre. Instead, Bielsa came around to
thinking that a midfield with Rodrigo in it was only inviting problems.
Accommodating Rodrigo at Leeds has been a quandary from the
outset; not because he is anything other than a skilful, imaginative footballer
but because the established order of Bielsa’s team meant he would have to adapt
in some way. It was not simply a case of learning Bielsa’s tactics or due to the
fact that Valencia, the club Leeds bought him from, were not much of a pressing
side but more a matter of Rodrigo having Patrick Bamford in his way. Rodrigo
was a record signing at Leeds but Bamford was Bielsa’s No 9. And the balance of
power up front has never changed.
Rodrigo came to England with a reputation for versatility, a
reputation which suggested he could play in various positions across the front
line (and, as Bielsa saw it, behind Bamford as a No 10 of sorts). That
perception might have been strengthened by his form in Spain which implied he
was more inclined to assist goals than score them himself, the trait of a
creative attacker. But in his last season at Valencia, almost 90 per cent of
his time was spent in the No 9 role. If not quite a traditional centre-forward,
Rodrigo was used to occupying that zone and shaping himself for it. There is
little doubt that at Leeds he would prefer to play there.
Bielsa’s formation was no secret when Rodrigo joined. Bielsa
is more than 130 league games into his reign in England and has never picked a
starting line-up which featured a front two. Bamford’s position at No 9 has
been nailed down and protected by a double-figure return of goals in both of
the past two seasons, a useful haul of assists and performances which earned
him an England debut this month. There is no clamour for Bielsa to replace him
with Rodrigo and no temptation on Bielsa’s part to do so. Which creates the
conundrum of how to fit both players into his team. And the wider debate about whether
fitting both players into his team is the right thing to do.
Leeds’ best performance of the season so far, at home to
Everton, was produced without Rodrigo in their side, something which may or may
not have been coincidental (Bielsa had planned to start him that day, only for
Rodrigo to suffer a muscular strain earlier in the week). What seemed clear,
though, was that against Manchester United and Liverpool, Rodrigo was withdrawn
at the end of first halves in which Leeds lacked a dominant shape and made hard
work of retaining possession beyond halfway. So much attention is on Bielsa’s
midfield, in part because of the failure to recruit in that area over the
summer, and Bielsa is in the midst of a fight to establish a consistent pair in
front of Kalvin Phillips.
Rodrigo could not have asked for a better chance than the
one which fell to him early on against Liverpool and the attack which led to it
showed hallmarks of what Leeds want from him going forward: Rodrigo measuring
his run into space inside the box as Raphinha sprinted down the right with the
ball. His failure to bury the opportunity was a costly one but it is safe to
assume Rodrigo popping up in those positions regularly would result in him
scoring goals. One of the themes in two of his starts so far this term was a
struggle to receive the ball in the opponent’s penalty area.
The next two touch maps — the first from Old Trafford on
August 14 and the second from Sunday’s 3-0 defeat by Liverpool — show the exact
positions where Rodrigo took hold of the ball while he was on the pitch. Both
of them show a lack of involvement beyond the 18-yard line but also an absence
of concerted interplay in the pocket outside the box, the pocket where a No 10
in theory should be most dangerous. That was not solely down to Rodrigo. In
neither fixture did Leeds play well and Bielsa admitted on Sunday that his
system had failed to serve his attacking players in the way that Jurgen Klopp’s
system served Liverpool’s front three but it supports the view that Rodrigo in
midfield is not giving Leeds enough of a foothold.
Rodrigo’s touches against Manchester United at Old Trafford
Rodrigo’s touches in the defeat by Liverpool
Burnley away before the international break brought more out
of him. Leeds were better at linking up with Rodrigo going forward (graphic
below) and he was involved in the creation of some of their best chances,
varying his position more. Burnley contained Bielsa’s team for parts of the
game, however, and Rodrigo was one of the players Bielsa chose to sacrifice
with Leeds chasing a 1-0 deficit in the second half. Not for the first time, it
was Bamford who came up with a finish and forced a 1-1 draw.
Rodrigo’s touches against Burnley
The framework of the team at Leeds is not designed to
accommodate a full-blown 10. Bielsa likes his midfielders to mix creativity
with graft and to position themselves in a manner which keeps Leeds defensively
sound. To that end, Rodrigo is as much required to be a centre-midfielder as a
secondary forward. Opta’s analysis of his appearances for the club last season
categorised him as a central midfielder in 69 per cent of his minutes and an
attacking midfielder for just 10 per cent. He got a short streak of appearances
as a striker towards the end of the campaign and scored four times in four
games. That burst of form made him and Bielsa think that he would acclimatise
to a greater extent this season.
At Thorp Arch they regard Rodrigo as a disciplined and
dedicated trainer. Bielsa sees that in him too. But there was a feeling there
that creating a consistent midfielder out of Rodrigo — even a very
attack-minded one — might take a lot of persistence and patience.
Rodrigo’s up-and-down influence, Bielsa said last month, was
not the player’s fault. “I sincerely exempt him from any responsibility (for
his impact) because in every game and every training session and in his private
life he is impeccable,” Bielsa said. “He is not a player who is happy with
having no protagonism. Any manager, with his disposition, would want him to be
in the team.” Everyone wants this transfer to work.
Bielsa is trying to make that happen and while Barcelona
wondered if a £27 million forward playing out of his natural position was
someone they could target last month, Leeds were wholly resistant to the idea
of him leaving. But as Tyler Roberts took Rodrigo’s place at the start of the
second half on Sunday, it seemed again that Bielsa had a broader decision to
take over the best blend in midfield for games where the opposition’s system
allows him to go 4-1-4-1. In plain sight, the advanced midfield areas are where
Leeds have been found wanting so far in terms of the way they have controlled
their matches. That is where Bielsa needs a greater weight of confidence and
pressure.
In getting it right, does he take the most robust approach
by pairing Stuart Dallas and Mateusz Klich, at least until the results begin to
flow? Does he stick with Rodrigo and support him resolutely or is the Spaniard
at No 10 too much of a luxury against the Premier League’s strongest sides? Is
Jamie Shackleton’s engine worth another go? Should he try and bring Tyler
Roberts into the picture or does that simply create a mirror-image of the
set-up with Rodrigo? Will Adam Forshaw give him an alternative over a sustained
period of time? And is there a way in this team that Rodrigo and Bamford can
both feature and do what each is paid to do?
Bamford’s starting place is solid and rightly so. As hard as
Sunday’s match was, some of his runs between Virgil van Dijk and Joel Matip in
the first half were intelligent attempts to create space, looking for deft
passes into the gaps. And Bielsa is blessed with a machine in Phillips, a
midfielder who looks destined to improve again this season even if Leeds do not
but, in between them, the waters are more muddy. Where Rodrigo is concerned, it
is still to be proved that in signing a high-calibre footballer who other clubs
in Europe rate, Leeds signed the right one.