The Leeds United boss will already be looking to the weekend following Monday's 1-0 win over Everton.
Amid a raft of debuts and the excitement that follows them, Daniel Farke can thank a tried-and-trusted partnership for keeping it so tight against Everton.
Leeds United’s 2025/26 Premier League season got off the start Elland Road craved on Monday. A dominant performance, 90-plus minutes of passion and, most importantly, three points. It may have needed a penalty to break the deadlock but few - not even Everton manager David Moyes - would deny the home side were deserving of their win.
Farke’s men set about Everton from the off, harnessing the energy inside Elland Road to completely dominate. They had 63 per cent of the ball in the first-half and 12 shots to their visitors’ zero. Final third quality was lacking in key moments but in midfield and defence, they were rock solid.
Leeds’ pressing forced Everton long, albeit they needed little encouragement, and that could well have proved an effective way of getting up the pitch were it not for Joe Rodon and Pascal Struijk. Beto is not a target man, but he is 6ft 4ins and no shrinking violet. The Toffees striker was given virtually nothing from his opponents throughout.
Rodon and Struijk, Leeds’ Championship title-winning centre-back pairing, might not have even started together on Monday were it not for the Italian football federation. It was their decision to include Jaka Bijol’s 2024/25 final-day red card on his international transfer certificate, therefore ensuring he missed the season-opener through suspension.
Leeds have not spent £15million on Bijol, a full Slovenian international with top-flight experience in Italy, to be back-up. He started Leeds’ first two pre-season friendlies and was only dropped when it became apparent he would not be eligible to feature against Everton.
And Bijol had looked a step up from his teammates throughout the summer, playing alongside Rodon or Struijk due to being equally comfortable on either side of the pairing. The feeling was Farke would stick with his Championship duo for Everton and, to many, Dutchman Struijk would drop out come Arsenal on Saturday. But that is not a given.
Should Jaka Bijol come straight in vs Arsenal?
Farke does not tend to make significant changes to a winning team and while Arsenal away is a very different prospect to Everton at home, neither Struijk nor Rodon did anything to be dropped. The opposite in fact. Both staked their respective claims for a spot in the XI come Saturday.
With eight defensive contributions each - a combination of tackles, blocks, clearances and interceptions - according to FotMob, Struijk and Rodon were only beaten by all-action midfielder Anton Stach when it came to Leeds players. James Tarkowski and Michael Keane registered 15 and nine respectively but that is affected by their need to defend more, given the home side’s dominance.
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Struijk also excelled in possession, his 69 successful passes more than anyone else on the pitch and coming from 70 attempts at an astounding 99 per cent accuracy. Of those 69 passes, 11 were punched or clipped into the final third, highlighting the centre-back’s importance in building attacks from deep, something he has proven capable of doing consistently over multiple campaigns.
Whether that in-possession ability is equally valued at Arsenal remains to be seen, with Leeds unlikely to dominate possession and therefore unlikely to build attacks so often. Success on Saturday might instead be found on the counter-attack, or through set-pieces - admittedly, something Mikel Arteta’s side are near-perfect on.
And so perhaps Bijol is the man for that particular occasion, but better for Farke to have headaches over who to pick then what to do if someone becomes unavailable. Injury or suspension to Rodon last season would have been a real issue, given the lack of cover, but Leeds have depth at centre-back now, not just in terms of personnel but also in quality.
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