Leeds United They continued their path towards automatic promotion from championship With a 4-0 win over Oxford United at Elland Road on Saturday.
The Whites took all three points thanks to goals from Dan James, Jayden Bogle, Brenden Aaronson and Manor Solomon, and are second in the league.
When Marcelo Bielsa led the club to promotion in the 2019/20 season, he had the mercurial talent of Pablo Hernandez, who produced… Nine goals and nine assists This term.
This was the Spanish magician's last season playing regular matches for the Whites, with Victor Orta and Bielsa moving on to sign his replacement in the summer of 2020.
The end of Pablo Hernandez's time at Leeds
After returning 34 goals and 38 assists In 151 appearances at Championship level for Leeds, Hernandez has reached the latter stages of his career and become a young player in the Premier League.
The veteran midfielder is just getting started Three of his 16 posts in the First Division, before moving from Elland Road on a free transfer at the end of that term.
Bielsa and Orta clearly anticipated this situation because they rushed to sign his replacement in the summer of 2020, bringing in Rodrigo from Valencia for a contract. The reported fee is £30 million.
After some thought he might have come in as a centre-forward to give the team a goal-scoring boost, the Spaniard played in the centre-forward role. Most of his minutes As an attacking midfielder instead of Hernandez, which is what one of the former white stars expected.
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He talks to a football insiderFormer Leeds player Noel Whelan said: “He doesn't always go through the middle, he likes to play at the back and drop into that No. 10 role. When you have someone like that, there's no point in having a No. 10 because they'll get in each other's way. “He has the number 10, and I always knew from the beginning that he was Pablo Hernandez's successor.”
Rodrigo Leeds form
However, unfortunately, the club's then-record £27m signing failed to live up to his compatriot's legacy at Elland Road, with the return of Seven goals and two assists In 27 matches in his first Premier League season with the club.
The left-footed striker followed that up with just a shot Six goals and one assist He played 31 matches in the Spanish League during the 2021-22 season in the white shirt.
Ironically, his best goalscoring form was saved for the year in which Leeds were relegated from the Premier League, as Rodrigo scored… 13 times in 31 matches.
Thanks for £3 million release clause After negotiating with Orta, Qatari club Al Rayyan rushed to sign the Spanish striker for 10 times less than what the club initially paid for him in 2020.
As you can see in the table above, Rodrigo moved from Elland Road with much less to show for his time at West Yorkshire than Pablo Hernandez did in 2021.
Ultimately, Orta's £30m gamble to replace the Spanish magician did not pay off, and the club ultimately suffered a huge loss on the club's record signing, who struggled to find his form until the season in which the Whites were relegated.
Daniel Fark His team will hope to avoid any similar mistakes if they achieve promotion and get the chance to be recruited for the top flight season in the summer.
