How Joe Rothwell is becoming a key player for Leeds United

National World - LocalTV

Lee Sobot discusses the the current form of Leeds United’s Joe Rothwell.

Transcript

00:00Joe Rothall, he had a good game, didn't he?

00:04A lot of people were saying he was man of the match,

00:06which, as we already discussed off-camera, is quite surprising

00:09given he's a central midfielder.

00:11But you thought he was certainly a stand-out player in that game.

00:13Yeah, definitely. It's quite ironic and funny the way it's worked out.

00:17Obviously, you've got your two first-choice midfielders out,

00:19Ethan Empadu, club captain, and Ilya Gruev,

00:22who would be the two main starters in those two centre midfielders' positions.

00:25And yet, possibly, the two centre midfielders are the two best players

00:30because I think Joe Rothall was most people's idea of man of the match,

00:32and if it wasn't him, it was maybe Alton Aker.

00:34And they're the two centre midfielders, so they've really stepped up to the plate.

00:38I've seen a few people say this, and I can kind of agree with it,

00:41that actually maybe having those two in centre midfield

00:44adds a bit more impetus and makes them a bit more attacking, really.

00:49I can see that. Empadu and Gruev are obviously fantastic players,

00:52but they are slightly more defensive.

00:55They'll be more solid with those two, you would think,

00:58but then again, they were pretty solid against Sheffield United,

01:00you've got to be said.

01:01But those two definitely feel like a little bit more going forward,

01:05and Rothall was just great on and off the ball,

01:08really pressing down whenever he could off the ball,

01:11really adding some vigour going forward on the ball,

01:14some very, very neat passes.

01:15Obviously, he got the assist for the goal.

01:17Whether that was quite by design to put the corner in that low, I don't know,

01:20but it doesn't matter, it worked.

01:22Very, very good performance from him.

01:24I think nine out of ten we gave him in the player ratings,

01:26which sort of says it all, really.

01:28Very, very good indeed.

01:29That said, it doesn't sort of hide or disguise the fact

01:32of how light leads are in centre midfield,

01:35and you do feel like if you had one injury to either of those two,

01:38then you really, that could have a really,

01:41I'm not sure about disastrous, but it'd be very, very difficult

01:44to sort of navigate that,

01:45because obviously then you really are looking around.

01:47Obviously, Charlie Crews is a very good, young, talented midfielder,

01:50but you'd be really throwing him in the deep end,

01:52and I don't think he's quite at Archie Gray levels yet,

01:54that sort of thing.

01:55Obviously, in terms of a youngster coming through,

01:58it's a different ball game with Charlie Crews.

02:00Obviously, they're going a bit more patient with him.

02:02He's a good young player waiting in the wings, though,

02:04and then you'd probably be looking at other people stepping into midfield.

02:06I mean, Isaac Schmidt could probably play there.

02:09Pascal's played holding midfield before,

02:11but if you were to lose one of those two when Ampadu and Grueva are out,

02:14then that would be a problem, and that's why, basically,

02:16Daniel Farker has admitted they are looking at the free agent market.

02:19So, it's kind of watch this space to see if anything happens with that.

02:22I think he's basically said that the ideal would be to get somebody in

02:26who can play centre midfield, but also play a centre-back,

02:29because then you've got sort of covering both those positions,

02:32because obviously you've got to remember Ampadu also is an option at centre-half.

02:35So, yes, two aspects to it, really.

02:37Number one, a very good performance from Rothwell,

02:39and you should remember with him as well,

02:40he hasn't actually had that many starts.

02:42I mean, I think that was only his second league start of the season,

02:44and last season, he only had seven league starts, I think it was.

02:48So, I know he's 29 and stuff.

02:50I mean, he's not that ancient, is he?

02:51So, obviously, he's still got plenty of years ahead of him,

02:53but equally, not just that, when he hasn't had that many starts,

02:57he's probably going to continue to get better, which is quite exciting, really.

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