Pascal Struijk and the big ‘what if’? — Square Ball 3/9/24

Protect Ya Groin

Written by: Chris McMenamy

As Elland Road entered full party mode in the last ten minutes of Saturday’s win over Hull, I found myself in a contemplative mood. We were all having great fun, but my mind was occupied by one question: what if Pascal Struijk hadn’t missed the second half of last season?

Leeds United’s 2023/24 campaign collapsed in April, as it often does. The clocks go forward and our players retreat into their shells. Trepidation on the pitch leads to frustration among the crowd and it all ends with some embarrassing defeat, like a 4-0 at QPR. As everything unravelled, we were all too busy worrying about the breakdown of our attack when, in hindsight, perhaps Struijk’s absence was a greater one than we might have appreciated at the time.

It feels strange to suggest that Leeds ‘missed’ Struijk when his groin injury coincided with our best run of form in years, one which was built upon a solid defensive partnership between Joe Rodon and Ethan Ampadu. Three goals conceded in thirteen games prior to the March international break, the ten days which triggered the collapse of Daniel Farke’s delicate house of cards.

The Rodon-Ampadu centre-back pairing benefited from Illan Meslier’s serious upturn in form after Christmas, form which eluded him during the run-in. Leeds conceded thirteen goals in the eight games that followed the March international break, a period which began with Rodon playing alongside Liam Cooper on a night where our defence failed us in at 2-2 draw at Watford. It was clear that Coops’ legs were gone and Rodon didn’t have the defensive nous to bail him out.

Rodon and Ampadu never recaptured their form after that and Leeds finally imploded on that fateful Friday night in West London. The midfield of Gray-Gruev lacked bite and our Wales defence couldn’t cope.

I wondered if the stress of Wales’ Euro 2024 play-off defeat to Poland had irreparably damaged those boys and the long, arduous club season had finally caught up with them. Just how much better off would we have been with a fully fit Struijk involved as the season hurtled to a brutal anti-climax at Wembley?

Having Struijk in the team may not have stopped Rodon and Gray playing Adam Armstrong onside for Southampton’s goal in the play-off final, nor would it have guaranteed Meslier didn’t massively underperform in the final month of the season; but it might have given us an extra dimension when playing out from the back and allowed Ampadu to step back into midfield, cutting off opposition attacks before they became dangerous.

But that’s all in the past. What’s done is done and we can only hope the Big Sexy Pirate looks after his groin muscles better this season. I’m not quite sure what that entails, but let’s hope he does anyway.

Struijk has been quietly immense in the opening weeks of this season. He picked up exactly where he left off last season, scoring a penalty against Portsmouth eight months after he’d done the same in his last competitive game at Preston. Any defender who can take penalties gets a thumbs up from me. Defending like Paolo Maldini, scoring like a young, erm, David Unsworth? Sign me up.

Even on a day where Leeds conceded three times, it would have been unfair to assign the blame for any of those goals to Struijk. Meslier should have saved the first, nobody could have stopped the second and Bogle gave away a daft penalty for the third. In the League Cup loss to Boro, Struijk’s cameo appearance at left-back gave Leeds’ limp performance a futile injection of impetus.

I won’t ever claim to be a tactical guru, but I can see with my own eyes that Struijk has been our best defender this season and, at times, our best player. He always finds himself in the thick of the action defensively and plays a greater role than Rodon in getting Leeds up the pitch, not to mention his prowess from set-pieces. Just imagine we had a specialist who could plonk a handful of corners and free-kicks onto Struijk’s head. You’d guarantee at least another five goals.

He shone brightest against West Brom on a day where nobody seemed willing to do much, but it’s the past two games that have encouraged Struijk to bring out the best in himself. Danny Röhl sent his Wednesday side out to press Leeds early on, presumably in the hope that his team could get at us and take advantage of some early nerves.

The end result was Josh Windass chasing Pascal around the Leeds area like a six-year-old trying to tackle a grown man. Struijk was made to look like Maldini, while Windass looked like, well, Windass.

Saturday’s win over Hull followed a similar pattern. Another German manager with delusions of grandeur, sending his team out to put Leeds under pressure only to be met with disdain by a cool and calculated Struijk. We’ve become accustomed to seeing a frustrating amount of sideways passing under Farke, but Pascal always seems to be looking up the pitch, rather than across it. He adds a dynamism that felt lacking at times last year, certainly in the most crucial moments as the season reached its conclusion.

He’s exactly what the Elland Road crowd needs, a man who wants to go forward and attack, attack, attack. There are undoubtedly some defensive kinks to be worked out between him and Rodon, but it does look promising. Having Ampadu back in midfield as the defence’s protector should help there too.

I’m enjoying seeing a fully fit Struijk operating a level above most Championship defenders (and attackers). It gives me hope that Leeds can go one step further this season. Long may it continue. Just look after those groin muscles, Pascal, won’t you?