Leeds United’s pre-season preparations are now in the books as we prepare for our second season back in the Premier League.
It’s fair to say that Tarik Muharemovic has made quite the impression since his £34million move from Sassuolo. The Bosnian defender has looked phenomenal in pre-season. Hopefully he can carry this form into our game against Nottingham Forest on Saturday.
Although James Trafford joined us relatively deep into pre-season, he too has also impressed with what we have seen from him so far. In fact, talkSPORT pundit Adrian Durham claimed that Trafford looked like Franz Beckenbauer with the ball at his feet against Augsburg.
There was another Leeds player who was certainly not at his best in pre-season. But that does not mean we should be considering any last-minute approaches for him this summer.
Ao Tanaka labelled “average” in pre-season for Leeds
By now, we’re all familiar with Ao Tanaka’s story last season at Leeds. The Japanese midfielder ultimately had to bide his time on the bench for a lengthy stretch of last season. This was before he eventually won back his place in the team at the backend of the season and impressed.
When Tanaka was rooted to the bench, there was plenty of speculation regarding his future. Thankfully, this seems to have quietened down for now.
Against Liverpool in America, Tanaka was labelled “sloppy” by Graham Smyth after an underwhelming performance.
This sentiment was seemingly echoed by Isaac Johnson, who gave Tanaka a six out of 10 in his pre-season ratings for Leeds Live.
When justifying his decision, Johnson said this about Tanaka’s pre-season: “Quite average. Gave away the winner vs Wrexham but played better in the home games, including the assist for Lukas Nmecha. Yet him coming deeper to get the ball seems to stifle his creativity. Whether he is having a World Cup hangover or not, only he will know.”
For now, it looks like Tanaka will begin next season on the bench, with Anton Stach and Ethan Ampadu being our preferred midfield duo. But just because he will likely be on the bench again does not mean we should even consider selling Tanaka this summer.
Augsburg game proved why Ao Tanaka certainly still has a role to play
At the backend of pre-season, Farke typically deployed just two in midfield. Naturally, this will make it harder for the likes of Tanaka and Sean Longstaff to play.
Obviously, this will be subject to change throughout a long season, but Tanaka will likely need to be patient in the beginning.
Just because he will not start every game does not mean we should sell Tanaka, as has been suggested by other outlets.
It’s simply too late in the summer to shake up our midfield so dramatically. Also, with Shea Charles moving to Fulham, we would need to look elsewhere for another midfielder.
Against Augsburg, Tanaka took the ball on the turn in the final third spectacularly before threading through a perfectly weighted pass to Lukas Nmecha, who ended up dinking the ‘keeper.
Barring Stach, we do not have another central midfielder capable of doing something like this.
Tanaka represents a profile of midfielder we need in our squad. His creativity, tidy feet and ability to grab you a goal will make him a vital part of our squad once again next season.
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