Daniel Farke praises Joe Rodon following his full debut - but also cites an area to improve - Yorkshire Post 19/8/23
LEEDS UNITED manager Daniel Farke professed to being pleased with loan defender Joe Rodon's first start for the club in Friday night's Championship draw against West Brom - but with one caveat.
By Leon Wobschall
The Tottenham Hotspur centre-half and Wales international
was preferred to Charlie Cresswell in the heart of the back-line and justified
Farke's decision with a largely sound performance.
Farke was satisfied with his contribution, but did suggest
that there are still things to work on.
Farke, whose side dug deep to chisel out a point after going
behind early in the second-half to a controversial goal from Brandon
Thomas-Asante, said: "First of all it was important for him to have a
whole training week together with us.
"I think he was quite impressive and we had time to
speak and work with him, also individually on our tactical approach.
"We got the feeling he was prepared and we don’t have
to speak about his quality, he knows this league inside out, he was rock solid
when he played in this league and that was the reason Tottenham spent so much
money on him.
"He has unbelievable pace and it is good when we have
to defend that high in the field, it helps. He brings also aerial threat into
our game, we have many smaller, not the tallest players, (it’s) also important
for us in terms of set-pieces he is strong in duals and build up passes in his
technique.
"Also, to find a pass, there is still a few things he
can improve. I think in one or two scenes, he took a bit too much risk in terms
of stepping in.
"Once we allowed them to have this one chance, I would
have preferred him to stay a bit more calm in his position.
