Inside Elland Road: Longstaff and Rodon partnership
Leeds United's one-time record transfer can act as both an inspiration and a cautionary tale for the likes of Anton Stach and Ao Tanaka.
On Saturday at Brighton Daniel Farke stuck with the midfield that started Leeds' 2-1 win over West Ham United eight days earlier. Ethan Ampadu anchored the number 8 pairing of Sean Longstaff and Tanaka. For Ampadu it was the 34th Premier League appearance of his career. For Longstaff it was his 181st. And for Tanaka, just his eighth. Four of which have been substitute appearances.
Speaking after the West Ham game Tanaka was self critical, not for the first time since the campaign began. The Japan international has openly admitted he needs to get better, improve and find consistency at Premier League level. He's right. There's no sugarcoating it. As good as he was in his debut season in English football, outclassing numerous Championship opponents, Tanaka is yet to properly shine in the top flight. He was unable to give Leeds much of what they needed at The Amex.
Stach came off the bench at Brighton. Unlike most of his team-mates he created a moment of danger, dancing past a couple of challenges and forcing a save with a fine left-footed shot. The game had gone by that point, but it was something. Yet he has drifted through games, failing to regularly hit the heights of his showing at Wolves and his manager has faced questions on his performance levels since the summer move from Hoffenheim. It was a dip in form for Stach that led to calls for Tanaka's inclusion, before Farke's selection showed that he too felt it was wise to replace the German. But it cannot really be said that either man has won the arm wrestle for the role of Farke's more offensive minded number 8.
The pair could hardly be more different - Stach is a giant of a man whose Instagram is full of off-beat memes and photoshops dreamed up by him and his partner. Tanaka is not quite six foot. His Instagram is well populated but with pretty run of the mill photos and minimalist, almost poetic captions. Where Stach appears to have no issue talking to the media and was right at home doing interviews almost immediately after arriving in Germany as a new signing, Tanaka is reticent in the extreme. Even with the benefit of more than a year in England. He was audibly coaxed into a recent post-game mixed zone appearance by a club staff member and kept attempting to dash off after almost every response to a question.
What they have in common, besides their position on the pitch, is the difficulty level that greets all newcomers to the Premier League. Tanaka might have tasted English football in the Championship but this is his first campaign at an elite level of club football, in what many consider the elite level of club football globally. Stach has plenty of Bundesliga experience, that was one of the things that drew Leeds' recruitment team to him, but he's still a Premier League rookie.
Former Leeds United man Rodrigo spoke to Flashscore recently and naturally his time at Elland Road was a talking point.
"I think for every player who arrives to the Premier League, their first season is very difficult," he said. "It's very physical and demanding and the pace of the game is completely different. The Premier League sometimes looks and feels like a different sport, you know? It was a very challenging moment in my career. Especially for the first season and a half with [Marcelo] Bielsa, a very good but very demanding coach."
Rodrigo came to Leeds in a blaze of hype and excitement. Regarded by many as a statement signing, he cost £27m. Director of football Victor Orta described it as the most fair negotiation he'd ever encountered. With 33 games of his debut Premier League season played it was difficult to square Orta's feeling with reality, from a Leeds point of view. Rodrigo had scored three goals and added a single assist. He'd missed a dozen games through illness and injury. Had the final four fixtures not brought the flourish of four goals and another assist then it would have been reasonable to describe him as a bit of a flop.
The second season brought more game time but one fewer goal across the campaign, albeit for a Leeds team that struggled badly due to recruitment issues. Bielsa lost his job, Jesse Marsch came in and Rodrigo chipped in with three goals as they stayed up, just.
It wasn't until the Spaniard's third season at Leeds that he really showed his quality with any sort of consistency, ironically as the team went through a slew of managerial changes and he went through more injury problems. It emerged after the fact that Rodrigo played through the pain barrier to try and keep them in the Premier League. He scored 13 times, despite starting just 23 games. It was all to no avail as Leeds fell out of the top flight. When he left that summer to move to the Middle East, he did so having earned more respect and affection from the fans because in a season full of insufficient individual contributions Rodrigo at least added something worth cheering for.
For Tanaka and Stach, there is inspiration to be found in Rodrigo's story because he came to the Premier League with an incredible pedigree. Unlike either of them he had a little over 50 European games under his belt and a dozen Champions League and Europa League goals to boot. He was a Spanish international number 9 with 172 La Liga appearances. He cost more than Stach and Tanaka combined. And he found the Premier League to be the most challenging footballing experience of his life. As so many do. There are exceptions, like Rodrigo's close friend Raphinha, but players who take to the English top flight like a duck to water are unicorns - especially for newly promoted sides.
There is a cautionary tale, too, because by the time Rodrigo really earned the favour of the crowd and proved that he had the quality to make things happen in the Premier League, Leeds were on their way down. What's more Tanaka and Stach have entered the Premier League at a time when staying up has come to be regarded as almost impossible for newly-promoted sides. Sunderland's incredible 18-point start suggests they won't find it impossible and both Leeds and Burnley are currently above the drop zone after 10 games, but nothing is going to come easy for any of those three sides this season. Neither Tanaka nor Stach can afford to wait two or three seasons to really settle and show their true quality. Leeds cannot afford that either.
Of all Leeds' new signings, there has been serious promise found in the performances of two - Gabriel Gudmundsson and Noah Okafor. They have the look of players capable of bucking the 'difficult first season' trend, Okafor because he has caused problems for most full-backs he has faced and Gudmundsson because he has been right at home in the majority of Leeds' games. Saturday's beating at Brighton should do little damage to his burgeoning reputation - Yankuba Minteh will make lots of very good defenders appear average- as long as he puts it quickly behind him. As for Okafor, scoring just two goals in his first seven games should motivate him because Leeds need more, but it has to be remembered that Raphinha didn't get his third Premier League goal until his 14th appearance.
The reality for all of Leeds' new boys and players who won promotion to get their first real crack at the Premier League is that this will be a difficult season. The first one almost always is, for everyone. But among their number have to be players who make it look easier. Players who don't take a full season or longer to establish themselves as belonging to this level and in doing so allow team-mates to catch up over time. For one of Stach or Tanaka to do this would be ideal. Together they have to make sure that even though it's difficult, it isn't disastrous.
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